DARPA was succeeded to create the tiny thermal imager

  The defensive scientific agency DARPA declared a successful conclusion of work on creation of the tiny thermal imager which is very necessary to military. Now infrared devices of supervision with high can be made permissions in dimensions of ordinary devices of night vision and even less.

   The defensive contractor, the DRS Technologies company, I developed the infrared camera with pixels only five microns in size or five million shares of meter. It is comparable with a size of pixel of a camera of the ordinary smartphone and much less, than pixels on matrixes of modern thermal imagers. As at identical permission the new IK-sensor is 6 times less, in production it will be 36 times cheaper.

  Present thermal imagers or are very bulky and are established only on heavy machinery, or have the low permission (about 320х240 pixels) that it isn't enough for military use, for example from BPLA board. Today individual thermovision devices of supervision which will be rather cheap and compact that it was possible to equip with them each soldier are necessary.

The new tiny thermal imager developed in DRS Technologies by request of DARPA. If such products put on a stream, infantrymen will receive for the first time wearable points thermal imagers

    Thermovision points will give huge advantage in fight as they provide detection of the heatcontrast purposes (for example the person against the district) even in the conditions of smoke, behind many easy shelters, under any conditions of illumination, during snow and a rain. Soldiers with thermal imagers can act surely even in the conditions of a continuous smoke hindrance whereas the opponent without similar devices will be helpless.

   Still it wasn't possible to reduce the size of pixels of the IK-matrix as at pixel reduction it becomes too susceptible to hindrances: "garbage" photons "hammer" the most part of pixel therefore the image is filled in with gray noise of hindrances.

   In DARPA don't explain, how it was succeeded to solve this problem, only emphasize that the sizes of pixels, instead of their quantity on a matrix are reduced. All technical details of technology concerning a ratio a signal noise while remain in a secret, but in DARPA say that the compact thermal imager gives the same qualitative picture, as well as larger analogs.