High-sensitivity and Low-cost
Infrared Camera Detectors

Battelle Ventures has invested in Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s (ORNL) licensee Multispectral Imaging, Inc. (MII). MII's mission is to build high-sensitivity, low-cost infrared camera detectors that enable soldiers and firefighters to "see" objects at night or in smoky areas. The detector will incorporate ORNL's infrared-sensing microcantilever array technology into MII's capacitive sensing readout chip.In the MII version of ORNL’s array, 160 × 120 silicon microcantilevers, each 50-micron-long microcantilever, which represents a pixel, bends in proportion to the intensity of the infrared radiation striking it. Every object gives off infrared light; the hotter the object, the greater the number of infrared photons emitted. Competing infrared sensing technologies can be either cooled to cryogenic temperatures or operated at near room temperatures. The "un-cooled" ORNL microcantilever technology operates at room temperature, and because this technology requires no cooling, it uses less energy than most competitors, lowering the cost. MII's capacitively sensed microcantilever array offers high resolution, low noise and impressive dynamic range, allowing users of the future camera to take finely detailed pictures of objects with high sensitivity in both brightly lit and dark, smoky rooms.

ORNL's Infrared-sensing Microcantilever Array Technology

MII first licensed ORNL's microcantilever technology and then licensed two related inventions. Later the company entered a work-for-others agreement with ORNL to get help in characterizing the sensitivity of MII's test devices and measuring how much a cantilever bends with changes in infrared light intensity.

In just one year, the MII engineering team made arrays of uniformly released microcantilever sensor structures that have up to five times the responsivity of the previous licensee's devices. The microcantilevers bend out of the sensor plane, avoiding sticking problems that were previously encountered. MII redesigned and fabricated the electronics to eliminate readout problems that caused low sensitivity.