PLASMONICS INC — Department of Defense SBIR Phase II: In the first phase of this program Plasmonics was able to make a breadboard profile sensor

Description

In the first phase of this program Plasmonics was able to make a breadboard profile sensor using COTS optics and a pyroelectric-linear-detector array that was able to detect a human by subtending greater than 16 pixels across the target at a range of up to 75 m. Based on work in Phase I, it was concluded that the design of existing COTS linear-detector arrays was insufficient to achieve a range of 300 m in a profile sensor. It was determined that this limitation in the COTS arrays was due to the size of the pixels and the insufficient thermal isolation of the pixels. The existing linear arrays are designed for spectroscopy rather than imaging. A pyroelectric-detector array that overcomes these limitations was designed in Phase I. A sparse-array configuration that uses fewer pixels than COTS arrays, and thus has lower power consumption, was also designed. In Phase II complete prototype sensors using these designs will be built and tested.