Design and development of a 2-color infrared emitter array system

Abstract

Infrared (IR) detectors have a wide array of uses because they can detect what our eyes cannot. We use IR information in astronomy for detecting hidden objects, wireless communication, weather forecasting, and much more. The military also uses infrared detectors for night vision, targeting, and even object tracking. Infrared is popular for object detection because most objects produce thermal frequencies in the IR range. That means with an infrared detector it is easy to observe and characterize an object based on the heat it produces. Unfortunately, these systems are not always easy to test. The best way to find out if the infrared detector is working is by testing it in the field, which can be expensive and hard to do. Fortunately, there is another way to test these systems that is much safer and more reasonable. It is possible to create an emulation environment so that the sensor can react as if it is in a live situation. This requires an array of IR pixels to reproduce previously observed heat signatures and a projection system to broadcast the array in order for the infrared detector to experience the output as if it were a real event. Previous work has included creating a 512x512 array of super-latticed LEDs (SLEDS) with one color, but in order to get a better sense of what an incoming object might be, multi-wavelength detection is necessary. The following paper outlines the work completed to create a 512x512 array of SLEDS with two different frequencies instead of one.