Sofradir, the global leader in advanced infrared (IR) detectors for military, space, scientific and commercial applications, today announces that its market competitive Daphnis HD will enter production. The 10-micron pixel pitch high-definition IR detector claims superior performance against recently launched competitive 10µm products. The decision to launch production follows the positive feedback and subsequent new orders Sofradir has received from select customers who have been extensively sampling the product.
Safran-Sagem counts among the system-level equipment makers selecting Daphnis HD MW in order to meet end-customer demands for more recognition and identification ranges on optronic products.
"High-end optronic equipment is required to carry increasingly more functions in constrained volumes. From this standpoint, the reduction in pixel pitch size of Daphnis FPA enables improved performance across all dimensions of an ISTAR mission: information, surveillance, target acquisition and reconnaissance without compromising the compactness of the optronic product. This is another strong market request,” said Thierry Dupoux, R&T director at Safran-Sagem.
Whereas visible imaging systems (which use shorter wavelengths than IR wavelengths) have been using HD formats for several years now, the transition to the HD format in IR wavelengths (3 to 5 µm) has just begun to take place. In that respect, Daphnis’ 4.8µm spectral cut off wavelength is a key differentiator, which allows unsurpassed signal over noise ratio, even in a low temperature scenario.
"Thanks to the sharp square like profile of its Mercury Cadmium Telluride photodiode and enlarged MW band, DAPHNIS offers improved recognition range versus any competing 10µm pitch products we have recently seen introduced in the market” said Laurent Fullana, general manager at Sofradir. “This elevates DAPHNIS to the product of choice for applications like gimbals, high-end vehicles sights and infrared search and track systems. Moreover, the ability to obtain an HD image format from a detector whose size fits previous platform generations is a real benefit as it facilitates customer system upgrades.”
Daphnis-HD MW brings a wider field of view, longer-range capabilities and all-important higher resolution to elite military equipment. Key features:
- Higher resolution, 1280 x 720 pixels
- Longer range, achieves up to 55% DRI range improvement on the preceding generation of IR detectors
- Wider field of view, enables up to twice the field coverage of 15 micron pixel pitch MWIR detectors
- ROIC (Read-Out Integrated Circuit) functionalities with digital output for easy integration
- Fully compatible with HD screen formats and visible or SWIR camera channels
Sofradir, a subsidiary of Safran and Thales, is presenting 10µm Daphnis-HD MW at SPIE Defense and Commercial Sensing in Baltimore, MD, April 17 – 21, 2016.
