Optics - Photonics

VISION ENHANCEMENT IN AUTOMOTIVE APPLICATIONS

VISION ENHANCEMENT: enhancement of visual sensation/perception achieved through a suitable combination of sensors and display

Night time less than 30% of driving nearly 60% of car accidentsover 60% of pedestrian fatalities

increase of detection distanceglare from oncoming vehicles (106 nit on-axis)

Daytime high luminance background (>104 nit)adverse weather conditions (fog, heavy rain, …)

Twilight mesopic vision (10-3 =>10 nit)adaptation between background and interior

Optics - Photonics

VISION ENHANCEMENT SYSTEM

- VISION SENSORS- visible- NIR- thermal IR

- INFORMATION PROCESSING- recognition of road/lane edges- calculation of self-trajectory- detection/recognition/tracking of moving objects

- SENSOR FUSION- image registration- image fusion

- VIDEO MIXING- raster image- symbology (directions, warnings)- road/lane edges- dangerous targets

- IMAGE DELIVERY- direct view display- HUD- HMD (VCS?)

Optics - Photonics

RANGES FOR NIGHT VISION

- NEAR INFRARED0.8-1.1 micronradiation reflected by the sceneneeded illuminator (laser, IRLED, filtered halogen lamp)typical visibility distance 150m (3x)blooming

- THERMAL INFRARED8-14 micron (LWIR)radiation emitted by the scenetypical visibility distance 400m (5x)vision not limited to the lit zonevision of low visible contrast targetbetter in adverse weather conditionsno blooming

Optics - Photonics

NIGHT VISION SYSTEMS

- NEAR INFRAREDDaimler-Crysler

system demonstration on trucksIlluminator: solid state laser (810 nm)Sensor: CCD HUD

Jaguar-Fordsystem demonstration on carsIlluminator: filtered halogen lampSensor: CCD (TI)Display: HUD (Pilkington)

- THERMAL INFRAREDGeneral Motors NIGHTDRIVER

Production: 6,000 Cadillac De Villes (year 2000)Cost: 1995$Sensor: ferroelectric bolometer UFPA (Raytheon TI)Display: HUD 12x4° (Delphi)

Optics - Photonics

SENSORS FOR NIGHT VISION

- NEAR INFRAREDCMOS vs. CCD

limited bloomingrandom pixel accesssensitivity approaching CCD (HAD)

(high fillfactor, active column, TFA,...)large dynamic range (80-120dB)low cost

- THERMAL INFRARED (UFPA)ferroelectric bolometers

Raytheon TIGEC

resistive bolometers (Honeywell’s patent)SOFRADIR (polySi-Ge)LOCKEEDBOEING (VOx)

bimaterial cantilever SARCON

Optics - Photonics

Hybrid Ferroelectric Bolometer Array

Pyroelectricceramic

SolderSilicon

Thin-filmabsorber

ResistiveBolometer Array

BipolartransistorX-Metal

Y-Metal IR sensor

CantileverArray

Flexiblebimaterial \arm

Read-out Embeddedwaveguide

Grating

Read-outbeam

CMOS

SENSORS FOR NIGHT VISION

Optics - Photonics

UFPA Electronics

Other (SW, ...)

Display

Shutter/Chopper

Optics

~30%

COST BREAKDOWN OF RAYTHEON