Nextreme and Princeton Lightwave partner for new SWIR sensor

JUNE 3, 2008--Nextreme Thermal Solutions (Durham, NC, USA), a leader in microscale thermal and power-management products for the electronics industry, and Princeton Lightwave (Cranbury, NJ, USA), a leader in short-wavelength infrared (SWIR) sensors and lasers for the defense industry, have entered into an agreement to jointly develop a SWIR focal-plane sensor using extremely efficient thermoelectric cooling. The solution is based on Nextreme's unique thermal bump technology and Princeton Lightwave's indium gallium arsenide (InGaAs) focal-plane arrays and will dramatically reduce power consumption and weight and improve overall performance. These features will allow wide deployment of SWIR sensors for night-vision systems.

Infrared sensors are widely used by the US military and homeland security organizations. They are incorporated into night-vision goggles, weapon sights, and laser-based ranging and tracking devices. InGaAs SWIR sensors are of significant interest to the military as they are digital devices that can be networked. They are sensitive to the nightglow radiation at 1.6-μm wavelengths, enabling operation in total darkness. Additionally, this part of the spectrum is eye-safe, allowing use of laser illuminators invisible to current night vision devices.

For more information, go to www.nextreme.com or www.princetonlightwave.com.