Surveillance (day/night imaging) Using SWIR Cameras

When the mission is covert situational awareness using either passive or active illumination, InGaAs SWIR sensors and cameras from Princeton Infrared Technologies (PIRT) are the solution for 24-hr/7-day coverage. The SWIR cameras and imagers deliver high sensitivity and high resolution with high-definition formats while also providing high intra-scenic dynamic range with great linearity. The wide wavelength sensitivity range of these SWIR sensors gives operators the choice to utilize light from all sources in the scene or use a filter or beam splitter to eliminate the wavelengths easily scattered by obscurants like haze, dust, light fog, or smoke. SWIR imagers are not dependent on visible light sources for night imaging because of ‘night glow’ an emission from the upper atmosphere. This glow illuminates the ground with 1.3 and 1.55 wavelength bands that match to the high quantum efficiency of InGaAs SWIR sensors which are over 20 times more sensitive than an available colloidal quantum dot camera (ratio considers pixel area, system noise and QE). The PIRT 12 um pixel also has a collection advantage of over 5 times as a 5 um pixel. These factors make all the difference for successful night imaging.

The PIRT SWIR products are perfect matches for Pan-Tilt-Zoom (PTZ) surveillance systems mounted on perimeter defense towers or used in drones. PIRT’s small pixels put more pixels on target, improving DRI, a key surveillance metric. (DRI represents object Detection, Recognition, and Identification). The small SWaP of PIRT SWIR systems integrate well to PTZ systems. The cooled 1280SCam SWIR camera model fits the PTZ application well, while also providing ultra-low-level-light sensitivity, 14-bit linearity and high intra-scenic dynamic range of over 69.5 dB.