Friday, March 20, 2015

ULIS Announces Low-Cost VGA Thermal Imager

ULIS announces Pico640 Gen2 low cost VGA/120fps thermal sensor for security and surveillance applications. The 17um microbolometric pixel sensor is aimed to "making thermal imaging more accessible. In addition to security and surveillance systems, ULIS’s new sensor can also be used in cameras for outdoor leisure, such as nature observation or hunting."

The new sensor's NEDT is below 50mK, a more than 15% improvement over ULIS earlier generations, without any trade-off in power consumption. It operates at less than 130mW with a 60Hz frame rate. Other thermal imaging sensors in this category are siid to consume more power, typically 200 to 350mW at an equivalent frame rate. Pico640 Gen2 is housed in ceramic packaging, a cost-saving production technique ULIS first introduced to the market ten years ago. It has shown its value and vacuum integrity in the 500,000 ULIS thermal image sensors already in the field.

12 comments:

  1. A VGA 120fps thermal imager would be at least ITAR, probably USML, right? How will that play out for consumer applications? Also, if this company has shipped 500k units in a decade, are they a viable supplier for consumer market volumes?

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  2. Ulis is in europe.. So no ITAR. How many companies have shipped more than 500k thermal sensors except Flir? So what you are saying is that only flir can do consumer market. This is absurd as well as illegal.

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    1. I suspect ITAR logic has its ways to clamp down through equivalent regulations in other countries. I once tried to get information from ULIS. They were not exactly forthcoming and wanted to see some serious docs regarding my company. By their tone it seemed like they would want to see my baptismal certificate to make sure I'm a good guy. I don't know the details of their regulations, but if you think 120fps thermal imagers will be selling to Joe and his brother, I think you are underestimating the common sense of regulators.

      I'm not saying that FLIR is any better in supplying to consumer markets, although I'm not sure how that claim would be illegal. I think FLIR is also a very questionable prospect for a vendor to such markets, at least for the time being.

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    2. An international equivalent of ITAR is Wassenaar Export Control Arrangement signed by 41 countries, including France and the USA:

      http://www.wassenaar.org/

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  3. Moreover, Flir cannot be a consumer market champion outside US with 9Hz ITAR limited sensors!

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  4. There is no such sensor provider for consumer market except FLIR and SeekingIR. We confuse between civilian market and consumer market. A company like ULIS can never go to consumer market. If such product becomes a real consumer product, then ULIS will be in trouble...

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  5. So FLIR and SeekingIR can take over the world's consumer market with ITAR limited devices! Good luck and continue with your day dreams.

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    1. Please read my comment carefully. I didn't say that FLIR will take the whole consumer market at all.

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  6. Our ULIS friend, you will not loss your job since you have a fanastic product here. But consumer market is definitely different from you can do actually.

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  7. You will be surprised to know that I am not at all associated with ULIS. I am just putting here my logic :)

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  8. How about some black horses such as Chinese companies and also Japanese companies? For consumer products, it's not necessary to go to 120Hz with 40mK.

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