Responding to customer demands for increasingly compact thermal imagers, Sofradir-EC has introduced the Epsilon™, a ¼ VGA format infrared detector featuring 15-micron pixels. Roughly half the size and weight of previous generation systems, Epsilon is aimed at a number of applications, including battery powered hand-held systems, night-vision goggles and small UAVs payloads.

Sofradir is the leader in sophisticated Mercury Cadmium Telluride (MCT) technology for cooled IR systems and has a large portfolio of imaging sensors across the whole IR spectrum. The company pioneered 15-micron pitch fabrication in 2005 and today is in full rate production of small pixel imaging arrays. Epsilon joins the larger Scorpio™ (640x512) and Jupiter™ (1280x1024) array family of 15 micron based products.

High QE cooled focal plane arrays provide better performance over microbolometers, but traditionally have paid a penalty in terms of size, weight and power consumption. Sofradir’s advanced small pixel technology combined with a small rotary cooler has reduced the power consumption to only 2W – almost as low as the requirements of microbolometers. Smaller batteries and a lighter, more compact system translate into reduced fatigue for hand held/NVG operators, flexible integration for system builders, and greater payload options for small UAVs. “Epsilon gives systems engineers the ability to leverage MCT array’s high quantum efficiency, which results in much small f3.0 optics and warm operating temperature, which can greatly increase a systems MTBF”, states Chris Alicandro, Director of Sales at Sofradir-EC. “We expect Epsilon will find its way into many military electro optical systems in the near future”, concluded Alicandro during a recent industry conference on military night vision.