Having completed Phase I of a Small Business Innovation Research effort ultimately pursuing a full-scale sensor capability available for ready integration into small unmanned aerial systems sensor suites, Applied NanoFemto Technologies has begun SBIR Phase II work on the heretofore highly successful endeavor.

Funded by AFRL's Nanotechnology Strategic Technology Team, the company's Phase I results comprised development and demonstration of an infrared focal plane array imager that provides both spectral tunability and polarimetric sensing. Highly desirable in infrared imaging systems, spectral tunability enables scene viewing in different wavelengths, the distinct characteristics of which make it easier to detect targets in cluttered environments.

The incorporation of polarimetric sensing further enhances this detection capability, given that man-made objects tend to exhibit high degrees of polarization in their signatures.

Combining these two technologies on a single chip cuts size, weight, and power requirements in half and significantly reduces production costs as well.

Phase I saw both project development and demonstration goals met independently via a small-scale quantum dot FPA coupled to a wire grid polarizer. Meanwhile, the newly initiated Phase II effort seeks to build a fourfold-larger-scale FPA camera with multispectral tuning and polarimetric sensing combined in a hybridized sensor.