Electro-Optical Systems

Electro-Optical Systems

Electro-optical systems convert electromagnetic radiation into an electrical signal for use in a number of detection and signal processing applications.electro-optical systems They are commonly used in military and law enforcement applications and in airborne or mobile platforms such as drones and helicopters. They can also be found in surveillance cameras. These devices provide situational awareness day or night in challenging environmental conditions.

Optical sensors can be found anywhere that light needs to be converted into energy.electro-optical systems The most common examples include smartphones where sensors adjust screen brightness and smartwatches that monitor the user's heartbeat. There are many different types of optical sensor based on their design, including point and distributed sensors; extrinsic and intrinsic sensors; through beam and diffuse reflective sensors; and retro-reflective sensors. The main difference between these is the location of the transmitter and receiver, with through beam sensors having both a transmitter and a receiver positioned together in one housing and diffuse reflective and retro-reflective sensors having both the transmitter and the receiver located behind a reflector made with a special type of material.

An EO/IR (Electro-Optical/Infrared) system is an imaging system that spans both visible and infrared wavelengths, giving it the ability to detect objects in daylight or total darkness.electro-optical systems These systems are used in military and law enforcement applications to enhance day or night vision, track moving targets, and assess threats from a long distance and under difficult environmental conditions. They are often mounted on aircraft or vehicles, at sea or hand-carried and must be able to operate in a variety of weather conditions such as fog and rain.

A significant improvement in EO/IR technology is the availability of more pixels in a single image, known as increased pixel pitch or resolution.electro-optical systems Increased pixel pitch enables more detail to be displayed in a single frame of video, which increases the ability to recognize and identify objects and improves weapon sight performance. Another technological advancement in EO/IR is the use of AI (artificial intelligence) and machine learning. These enabling technologies allow the sensors to identify more patterns in the data and perform tasks without human intervention.

The most common type of EO/IR sensor is the photocathode, which converts light into an electrical signal by the effect of a change in temperature on a crystal.electro-optical systems This causes the crystal to become polarized in one direction and not the other, which can be detected by an optical detector. Other thermal effects that are applicable to EW systems include the pyroelectric and piezoelectric effects.

Quantum efficiency, or QE, is the percentage of photons hitting a device's photoreactive surface that produce charge carriers. This can be measured over a range of wavelengths to determine the device's performance at each wavelength. The higher the QE, the more efficient a sensor is at producing an electrical signal from photons.