Selex ES Unveils Smallest Ever Thermal Pixels
Superhawk detector employs more than a million pixels to create a detector that can produce a 1280x1024-resolution, blur-free image in total darkness.

Selex ES has taken the wraps off its latest infrared technology with a new detector named Superhawk. At the heart of this system are thermal pixels measuring just 8 microns in size, less than one-twelfth the thickness of a human hair. The Superhawk detector employs more than a million of them to create a detector that can produce a 1280x1024-resolution, blur-free image in total darkness.

Development of the eight-micron pixel is the outcome of Selex ES’s three-decade program of refining the metal organic vapour phase epitaxial (MOVPE) process by which infrared-detecting crystals are grown. Each pixel has the capability to discriminate heat differences of down to one-fiftieth of a degree. The advantages of small pixels is that more can be packed into a given detector field, resulting in improved performance with no penalty in size, weight or price.

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