Tunable MWIR camera using pixels with nano sensors
A nano sensor having a length, width, and depth, the nano sensor extending from a support structure. The nano sensor including a pixel on a portion of the nano sensor. The nano sensor may be coated with an infrared sensitive material and the nano sensor may be tunable by varying a thickness of the infrared sensitive material. An infrared (IR) imaging system. The system may include an array of nano sensors, and the nano sensors may include pixels. The nano sensors may be coated with an infrared sensitive material selected from the group consisting of vanadium oxide (VOx) and molybdenum disulfide (MoS 2 ). The system may operate on a middle-wave infrared structure (MWIR).
1 . A nano sensor array comprising:
a plurality of nano sensors, each nano sensor being made from a crystalline material and having a length, a width, and a depth;
a support structure from which each of the plurality of nano sensors extends, the support structure being made from the crystalline material;
each nano sensor element in the array corresponding to a single pixel, whereby each nano sensor element produces one pixel value in an image; and
an infrared sensitive material coated on each of the plurality of nano sensors;
wherein each of the plurality of nano sensors is independently tunable by varying a thickness of the infrared sensitive material coated thereon.
2 . The nano sensor array of claim 1 , wherein the infrared sensitive material is selected from the group consisting of vanadium oxide (VOx) and molybdenum disulfide (MoS 2 ).
3 . The nano sensor array of claim 1 , wherein the length of each of the plurality of nano sensors is 150 μm, the width of each of the plurality of nano sensors is 20 μm, and the depth of each of the plurality of nano sensors is 50 μm.
4 . The nano sensor array of claim 1 , wherein the thickness of the infrared sensitive material on each of the plurality of nano sensors is at least about 2 nm.
5 . A low noise electronic comprising field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) using the pixels of claim 1 .
6 . An infrared (IR) imaging system, comprising:
an array of nano sensors, each nano sensor being made from a crystalline material and having a length, a width, and a depth, each individual nano sensor element of the array of nano sensors corresponding to a single pixel, whereby one nano sensor produces one pixel value in an image;
wherein the nano sensors are coated with an infrared sensitive material selected from the group consisting of vanadium oxide (VOx) and molybdenum disulfide (MoS 2 ) and each of the nano sensors is independently tunable by varying a thickness of the infrared sensitive material coated thereon;
wherein the system operates on a middle-wave infrared structure (MWIR).
7 . The imaging system of claim 6 , wherein the middle-wave infrared (MWIR) spectrum comprises 3 μm to 5 μm.
8 . The imaging system of claim 6 , wherein the system does not include a cooling mechanism.
9 . The imaging system of claim 6 , wherein each pixel within the system has a response time of 10 milliseconds, the response time being the interval between IR absorption and the output signal from a pixel.
10 . The imaging system of claim 6 , wherein the system comprises at least one thousand pixels.
11 . The imaging system of claim 6 , wherein the system has dimensions of 1 cm by 1 cm.
12 . The imaging system of claim 6 , wherein each nano sensor comprises a different thickness of infrared sensitive material.
13 . The imaging system of claim 6 , wherein each nano sensor comprises a different dimension.
14 . The imaging system of claim 6 , wherein each nano sensor is tuned to a different wavelength of infrared light in a middle-wave infrared (MWIR) spectrum ranging from about 3 μm to about 5 μm.
15 . An infrared camera comprising the imaging system of claim 6 .
16 . The infrared camera of claim 15 , wherein a size of the camera is 1 cm by 1 cm.
17 . A method of constructing a complete IR image, the method comprising taking data from each pixel of the system of claim 6 and using image processing techniques to construct the complete IR image.
18 . The method of claim 17 , wherein the imaging processing techniques comprises a software selected from the group consisting of MATLAB and VHDL (VHSIC Hardware Description Language).