US Army awards SBIR contract to Princeton Infrared Technologies

The US Army has awarded a Phase II Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) contract to Princeton Infrared Technologies to fund the development of real-time on-board video for gun launched munitions.

Princeton Infrared Technologies will use the Phase II SBIR funding to develop a small, cost-effective visible / short wave infrared (SWIR) camera for precision-guided gun launched munitions.

The camera is required to have low weight and power.

The contract comes after the company demonstrated the technology in Phase I.

Princeton Infrared Technologies president Martin Ettenberg said: “The advantages of InGaAs SWIR imagers are their ability to image at long range through atmospheric obscurants better than visible cameras without a requirement for cooling.

“They support very high frame rates for negating the effects of image blur in very fast moving munitions. In prior programmes, we have demonstrated that InGaAs SWIR imagers survive gun launched mechanical shock which we will leverage in this development.”

The company stated that it will work on the development of a lightweight, uncooled 640×512 on 8 μm pixel pitch SWIR seeker.

It will enable operators to precisely engage targets during day and night, in challenging environmental conditions.

The SWIR camera will provide the capability to image and track laser designators and pointers on the battlefield.

To be developed in a two-year period, the gun-hardened InGaAs SWIR camera will be installed on board a mortar launched projectile or small high-speed gun.

In May, Princeton Infrared Technologies was awarded a Phase II SBIR contract by the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) to develop detector arrays for coherent laser detection and ranging (LADAR).