Amorphous silicon detectors are ideally suited for many IR applications due to their high performance, high reliability and lower cost. Applications for microbolometers exist in both commercial and military sectors. Some of the top applications are as follows:

Surveillance

Because of the high contrast between humans and vehicles, uncooled IR detectors are an ideal choice for surveillance application. Surveillance applications encompass many different areas including, night vision, security, and basic surveillance. Because of the technological advances including 17μm pixel pitch and large format detectors, A-Si microbolometers are finding their way into many more military and commercial night vision applications. For example, one military application that benefits from these advances is unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) which require lightweight and reliable IR detectors that can stand physical punishment including high vibrations and high G force loads. These requirements make uncooled A-Si microbolometers ideally suited for this application.

Industrial Inspection

Certain infrared cameras can be calibrated so that they provide for the noncontact measurement of object temperature. These find plentiful applications in industrial inspection. One of the most common uses of these radiometric infrared cameras is in industrial environments having high power usage. Inspectors use IR cameras for thermal analysis of electrical and mechanical components for problem prevention and detection. In these systems, excess heat can be a sign of a potential problem. Infrared cameras are used to scan for many different issues including loose or dirty connections, overloaded circuits, plugged cooling lines in transformers, and much more. Additionally, the technology is non-invasive and non-destructive and allows for the testing of many points per day.

Firefighting

Another application for IR detectors is firefighting. Firefighters are often thrust into situations where visible light cannot be used due to smoky conditions. In low visibility conditions, finding trapped victims or downed fire fighters can be near impossible. Thermal imaging cameras have allowed fire fighters to see through the smoke and locate trapped victims and firefighters. Additionally, Thermal imaging allows for the detection of hot spots after a fire is extinguished, as well as to find the source of active fires.

Xeneth Software

Versatile software interface designed with the user in mind

Xeneth handles all Xenics infrared cameras regardless of wavelength sensitivity, interface, resolution and image format. The default view of the GUI (Graphical User Interface) will only show the key control parameters next to the infrared camera image. Upon changing the view from beginner, over expert to guru, extra settings become visible and adjustable.

An entire set of processing and post-processing tools is available to extract all useful information and to optimize your infrared images. When using a thermally calibrated camera (for selected cameras only!), the software is capable of doing a complete radiometric analysis (thermography) that takes object, environmental and optic characteristics into account.

Furthermore Xeneth lets you export recorded infrared images to common image formats which can be viewed and analyzed in 3^rd party software. Another new feature of Xeneth (available from version 2.7) is the extended calibration wizard which lets you easily optimize image correction calibration data without using real-time camera images.