Sofradir of Palaiseau near Paris, France (a subsidiary of Safran and Thales that makes cooled infrared detectors for military, space, scientific and industrial applications) says that its new Daphnis HD is entering production.
Sofradir says that the decision to launch production of the 10μm pixel-pitch high-definition midwave (MW) IR detector follows the positive feedback and subsequent new orders received from select customers that have been extensively sampling the product.
System-level equipment maker Safran-Sagem has selected the Daphnis HD MW in order to meet end-customer demands for more recognition and identification ranges on optronic products," says Safran-Sagem's R&T director Thierry Dupoux. "High-end optronic equipment is required to carry increasingly more functions in constrained volumes. From this standpoint, the reduction in pixel pitch size of Daphnis FPA enables improved performance across all dimensions of an ISTAR mission - information, surveillance, target acquisition and reconnaissance - without compromising the compactness of the optronic product. This is another strong market request," he adds.
Picture: The Daphnis 10μm-pitch HD-format midwave IR detector.
Whereas visible imaging systems (which use shorter wavelengths than IR wavelengths) have been using HD formats for several years now, the transition to the HD format in IR wavelengths (3-5μm) has just begun to take place. In that respect, Daphnis' 4.8μm spectral cut-off wavelength is a key differentiator that allows unsurpassed signal-over-noise ratio, even in a low-temperature scenario, says Sofradir.
"Thanks to the sharp square-like profile of its mercury cadmium telluride photodiode and enlarged MW band, Daphnis offers improved recognition range versus any competing 10μm-pitch products we have recently seen introduced in the market," claims Sofradir's general manager Laurent Fullana. "This elevates Daphnis to the product of choice for applications like gimbals, high-end vehicles sights and infrared search and track systems," he adds. "Moreover, the ability to obtain an HD image format from a detector whose size fits previous platform generations is a real benefit as it facilitates customer system upgrades."
The Daphnis-HD MW IR detector brings a wider field of view, longer-range capabilities and all-important higher resolution to elite military equipment. Key features include:
higher resolution (1280 x 720 pixels); longer range (achieving up to 55% DRI range improvement on the preceding generation of IR detectors); wider field of view (enabling up to twice the field coverage of 15μm pixel-pitch MWIR detectors); ROIC (read-out integrated circuit) functionalities with digital output for easy integration; and full compatibility with HD screen formats and visible or SWIR camera channels.
Sofradir is presenting the 10μm Daphnis-HD MW IR detector at the SPIE Defense and Commercial Sensing conference (DCS 2016) in Baltimore, MD, USA (17–21 April).
