Infrared Scene Projectors

Infrared displays at an affordable price

Electro-optic and infrared imaging sensors, such as CCD cameras and Focal Plane Arrays are growing in importance for military and law-enforcement applications. As the prevalence of these devices increases in the defense industry, so does the need for calibration and test instrumentation. Labortory simulation enables realistic testing of sensors and associated algorithms without costly field tests. Simulation of realistic scenes requires projectors with enough fidelity that the sensor can not distinguish the simulation from the natural environment.

Boulder Nonlinear Systems (BNS) is investigating infrared scene projectors based on liquid crystal on silicon devices (LCoS). LCoS offers a low-cost, high-resolution alternative to resistive emitter and deformable mirror devices. To date a 256x256 mid-wave infrared display has been demonstrated. Current research focuses on improving spatial resolution, response time, and contrast ratio