Micro-coolers for Focal Plane Arrays (MC-FPA)
Abstract
The Micro-coolers for Focal Plane Arrays (MC-FPA) program developed low size, weight, power, and cost (SWaP-C) cryogenic coolers for application in high-performance infrared (IR) cameras. It is well known that the sensitivity of an IR focal-plane array (FPA) is improved by cooling its detectors to cryogenic temperatures. The disadvantages of state-of-the-art cryo-coolers are their large size, high power and high cost. On the other hand, thermoelectric (TE) coolers used in low performance IR cameras are relatively small, but are inefficient, and it is difficult to achieve temperatures below 200 Kelvin (K). To reduce IR camera SWaP-C, innovations in cooler technology are needed. This program exploited the Joule-Thomson (J-T) cooling principle, in a silicon-based Micro Electro-Mechanical Systems (MEMS) technology, to develop and demonstrate wafer-scale integrated micro-cryogenic IR FPA coolers with very low SWaP-C. MEMS microfluidics, piezoelectric MEMS, and CMOS electronics were used to demonstrate an integrated cold head and compressor, all in a semiconductor chip. This program has related applied research efforts funded under PE 0602716E, Project ELT-01.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Accomplishment
- Publication Date
- Oct 01, 2017
- Source ID
- 3118f4b3dfc0cf5c32dd0c7482b3d11b