Sensors Unlimited to develop combined imaging/rangefinding camera

JUNE 5--Sensors Unlimited Inc. (Princeton, NJ;www.sensorsinc.com), a provider of innovative solutions based on indium gallium arsenide (InGaAs) technology, has received a US Air Force contract for the first phase of a 33-month program to develop a high-frame-rate, high-bandwidth, low-noise, focal-plane array (FPA) and camera for active tracking, wavefront sensing, laser ranging, imaging, and scoring. Sensors Unlimited's proposal was unique in that all of these objectives will be accomplished with a single FPA and camera. The Department of Defense Missile Defense Agency is providing the funding under a contract managed by the Air Force.

"For the first time, staring and ranging imaging will be possible with a single camera," said Marshall Cohen, president, Sensors Unlimited. "This dual-mode sensor/camera that we have proposed is made possible by Sensors Unlimited's patented technology that allows low-noise, high-sensitivity PIN photodiodes and high-speed, high-gain avalanche photodiodes to be fabricated within each pixel of the FPA. Despite sharing space within the pixel, each photodiode exhibits full optical fill factor."

The Phase 1 contract is a six-month period during which Sensors Unlimited will demonstrate its technical approaches for the advanced detector. If fully executed through Phase 3 of the program, the Sensors Unlimited contract will total $3.7M and will culminate in the delivery of two advanced cameras to the Air Force.