Tunable antenna-coupled metal-oxide-metal (MOM) uncooled IR detector (Invited Paper)

Missile Defense Agency/Advanced Systems, in partnership with both EUTECUS/University of Notre Dame (UND) and ITN Energy Systems/University of Central Florida (UCF) has embarked on developing a multispectral imaging IR sensor. This technology, when matured, could revolutionize IR sensor technology by reducing the need for cooling, eliminating lattice matching and avoiding epitaxial fabrication processes. This paper describes the approaches employed by both EUTECUS/UND and ITN/UCF teams to integrate nano-antenna technology with the existing cellular neural network (CNN) processor to produce multispectral IR sensors. This effort is a leap into the performance realm where biological systems operate.