The Smallest Cryogenic Infrared Camera in the World
Before the end of her PhD, Florence de la Barrière, Doctor and Onera 2012 Best Thesis awarded, completed the implementation of an extremely compact camera, suitable for industrial manufacture.
The infrared on-chip camera, developed at ONERA within the framework of a thesis by Florence de la Barrière, is a technology breakthrough compared to existing infrared systems: the entire optical system is integrated to the cryogenic infrared detector itself. The camera, which is extremely compact (total length 4 mm), equipped with a large field of view (equal to 120 °), is suitable for possible industrial manufacturing at the scale of the wafer.
The goal is to make an ultra-compact high performance infrared camera for surveillance applications, or for piloting assistance. Compactness will allow infrared observation capabilities to be extended to systems with low payload capacity, such as drones or light vehicles.
Florence de la Barrière received the Onera doctoral student prize for this work, conducted with Cea Leti and funded within the framework of a study program upstream from the DGA. The international Applied Optics journal also selected the camera for the cover of its issue of the 10th of March 2012, on the occasion of the publication of the work.