PHYSICAL SCIENCES INC. — Department of Defense STTR Phase II: A13A-T015

Description

Physical Science Inc., in cooperation with Colorado State University, proposes the development of a low-cost, longwave infrared (LWIR) hyperspectral imaging (HSI) sensor employing compressive sensing (CS) based on single-pixel architecture. It will provide wide-area Early Warning for chemical vapor plumes. The application of CS to LWIR HSI will eliminate the high-cost focal plane array required by traditional LWIR HSI systems. The objective is to produce a CS-HSI sensor which meets a price point of $50k per unit. The system employs a digital micromirror device to spatially encode the scene and a novel interferometer which makes efficient use of the encoded energy while providing significant instrument radiance rejection. The system employs measurement and sparsity bases specifically tailored to the sensor and chemical plume imaging, respectively. The CS-HSI will achieve spatially resolved NESR of 510-8 W/(cm2stercm-1) at 10 cm-1 spectral resolution and 1.6 Hz cube acquisition rate, providing a CLmin of less than 135 mg/m2 for a 3 K temperature contrast.The Phase II effort will produce and demonstrate a TRL 4 prototype in Year 1 through local, outdoor testing. The TRL will be increased to TRL 5 in Year 2 through sensor hardening and participation in government sponsored field testing.