Lynred boosts thermal sensitivity across range of 12-micron infrared detectors

Grenoble, France, November 17, 2021 – Lynred, a leading global provider of high-quality infrared detectors for the aerospace, defense and commercial markets, today announces enhanced capabilities across the whole range of its 12 µm infrared detectors, to enable optronics systems to more accurately identify objects in low-contrast scenes. These 12 µm pixel pitch infrared detectors, based on a microbolometer technology, come with enhanced thermal sensitivity, permitting use in limitless applications.

Applications include integration into outdoor leisure equipment for use at dawn or at night. Lynred’s new range of 12 µm microbolometers are ideal for enabling optronics systems to deliver the image quality end-users seek to observe nature in early forest mist and in all-weather conditions.

“Lynred is proud to have increased the maturity and strength of its entire range of 12 µm thermal imaging microbolometers,” said Jean-Yves Dussaud, chief marketing officer at Lynred. “These higher sensitivity advancements enable us to better respond to the diversified needs in new markets.”

The 12 µm pixel pitch microbolometer is the emerging standard for producing smaller thermal cameras that use space-saving optics. NETD (Noise Equivalent Temperature Difference) is one of several key parameters used to evaluate the image quality of optronics systems and thermal cameras.

With Lynred’s new 12 µm products, customers will benefit from gains in the performance of their NETD lower than 40 or 50mK, depending on the product grade, and other performance criteria: scene dynamics and mechanical robustness.

New range of 12 µm products

• Atto320-02: a compact and low-power consumption 320×240 digital 12 µm microbolometer offering fluid and crisp images – available Q1 2022
• Atto640-02: a compact, low power 640×480 12 µm microbolometer (in analog and digital formats) for SWaP (Size, Weight and low-Power) applications, offering fluid and crisp images – available end 2021
• Atto1280-02: a robust and compact 1280×1024 12 µm microbolometer, offering long range detection and high-quality wide field of view images; it has the smallest packaging footprint in its category – available Q1 2022

Lynred’s microbolometer technology portfolio

Lynred has within its technology portfolio several compound semiconductor materials. It decides which device to develop and manufacture based on the merits of the material that best suits and meets the needs of a target application.

The materials Lynred uses to develop microbolometers includes a-Si (amorphous silicon), the principal material underpinning the company’s 17 µm microbolometer; this product line has had a long and successful track record among international clients in a cross-section of markets: leisure, security & surveillance, defense and thermography. Other materials include Vox, a supplementary technology Lynred developed with the support of CEA-Leti, a high-tech research institute pioneering micro- and nanotechnologies, for integration in the 12-micron IR detector product family. It was introduced to provide the most adapted offer to the optronics needs of clients, with a view to having the same performance while reducing pixel size.

Photo courtesy Lynred