Infrared Camera
Teaming with an industry partner, NASA has developed a revolutionary
infrared camera that offers important applications not only in
aerospace research but in such other areas as air transportation,
environment monitoring and medicine.
The camera was developed by the Center for Space Microelectronics
Technology at Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Santa Barbara, California,
in cooperation with Amber, a Raytheon company, Goleta, Georgia.
An industry/government team developed this revolutionary infrared
camera that has broad applications in medicine, environment monitoring,
industrial processing and law enforcement, as well as in aerospace
research.
An innovative feature of the camera is its use of highly sensitive
quantum-well photodetectors or QWIPS. The greater sensitivity
of long wavelength QWIPS could allow physicians to detect tumors
using thermographic (heat analysis) techniques; improve pilots'
night vision to allow better landings; and enable environmental
scientists to monitor pollution and weather patterns with enhanced
measurement accuracy. Other possible applications include law
enforcement, industrial process control, search and rescue, and
military antimissile surveillance.
The camera weighs only 9.9 pounds and measures 4.4 inches
wide, 10.3 inches deep and 7.2 inches long. The prototype plugs
into a wall socket for power but the camera can readily be converted
to battery power for portability.
Because infrared light detectors must operate at extremely
low temperatures, the camera contains a Stirling cryocooler,
a closed-cycle refrigerator about the size of a fist that cools
the camera from room temperature to about 343 degrees below zero
Fahrenheit in about 10 minutes. The QWIPS technology represents
a half decade of development effort on the part of the Center
for Space Microelectronics Technology and its industrial affiliate
under contract to NASA's Office of Space Access and Technology.
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