For 50 years, the famous U-2 spy plane has been the premier reconnaissance platform for the United States. Able to fly at 70,000 or higher, th the U-2’s high vantage point allows it to see at great distances on either side of the aircraft. This ability to peer far inside the borders of nations with closed airspace has long made the U-2 a favorite of military commanders. The remarkable camera used in today’s U-2 is the Goodrich Senior Year Electro-optic Reconnaissance System, or SYERS II. Since the early 1980’s this remarkable electronic camera has demonstrated an extraordinary ability to see long distances through the atmosphere, even when conventional visible spectrum cameras cannot. A combination of atmospheric attenuation and scatter can severely impact the shorter wavelengths in the visible part of the spectrum, so the SYERS II camera uses electronic sensors to see in both the mid-wave infrared (MWIR) band (thermal energy) and the short wave infrared (SWIR) band (reflected light). It is the SWIR band that gives the SYERS is remarkable atmospheric penetration capability in reflected light.
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The secret of the U-2 for seeing in the SWIR band is the use of a cryogenically-cooled Indium Antinomide sensor. By cooling this material to a temperature of just 70K, it is able to sense SWIR light. But such systems are large and complex. In 2005, Goodrich acquired Sensors Unlimited (SUI) of Princeton, New Jersey. SUI, now known as ISR Systems Princeton is the world leader in a new material for sensing SWIR, indium gallium arsenide, or InGaAs. This new material is extremely sensitive in the 900-1700 nm wavelength band...without cooling! InGaAs is an ideal material for creating compact focal plane arrays for video cameras. Small, lightweight and low power, such cameras revolutionize imaging by allowing users to see SWIR images once only possible in larger, cryogenically-cooled systems like SYERS.
For military applications, SWIR cameras open the third and final window in the infrared spectrum. Long wave (LWIR) and MWIR sensors have long been a staple of military applications. Both are thermal sensors which do an excellent job of sensing human activity when that activity is warmer than its surroundings. Unlike LWIR and MWIR, SWIR sees in reflected light, so objects and persons look very similar to how they look in visible light, giving the military an all-new capability.
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Contact Goodrich to see how SWIR Imaging can meet your needs!