After Photonis and Device ALab joined forces, Photonis is proud to introduce the 30mK variant of the SmartIR640, the well-known VGA uncooled LWIR camera core. This camera is part of the growing LWIR camera families which uses proprietary shutterless technology and contributes to complete the product portfolio of Photonis Digital Vision.
Taking electronic noise to a new level
This SWaP camera variant embeds the PICO640S Lynred detector (<30 mK). It simply takes the best out of the detector (related to Lynred remarkable reproductible performances) and the camera concept. Indeed, SmartIR640 30mK variant illustrates in a very concrete manner Device-ALab’s design does feature ultra-low-noise electronics. Daravan LY, General Manager to explain: "Implementing the ultra-high-grade sensor did not require heavy developments. Our team simply fine-tuned the existing electronics of SmartIR640 series to get the final result at 30 Hz of typical NETD value of 25mK!” This is of importance, considering that other players in uncooled reach low NETD only when applying 3D denoising and with frame rate of 9Hz.
A breakthrough for both defense and non-defense applications.
Our thermal technology within the SmartIR640 30mK offers thermal detection to offer high impact rates for operations currently in SAR (Search&Rescue), Border Surveillance, Site Perimeter Security, and Remote Stationary Weapons. NETD at 25mK improves DRI (Detection Recognition Identification) and reduces FAR (False Alarm Rate), in a very similar way as cooled cameras brings in comparison to uncooled cameras.
For systems serving long range observation - whatever Unmanned and Manned Aerial Platforms, PTZ stations, Naval optronics – such low NETD value provides designer the latitude to integrate lenses with lower aperture, while conserving the system DRI performances.
As for industrial machine vision solutions, SmartIR640 30mK can also be implemented for on-line AOI (Automated Inspection Systems) or Robot Guidance as well as off-line, e.g. Non Destructive Testing by active thermography.
In all verticals above listed, SmartIR640 30mK opens a new path for equipment makers: Beyond the retrofit / performance increase of existing platforms, they can also address NETD-demanding market segments where cooled cameras cannot fit because of budget limitations: either financial, power consumption or footprint budget.
Stay cool… turn to uncooled
This tremendous “native” 25mK typical performance coupled with the ability to run SmartIR640 up to 120 Hz is by itself already a differentiator. However, it can even be improved downstream with 3D denoising algorithms, ultimately providing a level of sensitivity tackling the performances of cooled cameras. No TEC here but a true SWaP Infrared core, ready to integrate, latency-free, which weights starts at 38g and consumption around 1W.
SmartIR640 30mK is proposed either as USB module (remote processing) or as engine core (embedded processing) with offering all interface variants: BT656, YCbCr, Mono16, CameraLink, SD-SDI, HD-SDI… This enables a very easy swap for any of actual clients. It comes along with a large choice of lenses up to 90°HFOV but is also available without lens.