Wide-area infrared imagery of Gillette Stadium taken with the digital-focal-plane-array camera.

Advanced Imager Technology

Our group has pioneered imaging technologies that have enabled some of the world's most powerful telescopes and cameras for the defense and scientific communities. We design and fabricate charge-coupled-device (CCD) imagers with sensitivity spanning the visible, infrared, and X-ray bands. Our CCDs help scientists study far reaches of the universe and have been employed in high-end astronomical instruments, such as the 1.4-gigapixel Panoramic Survey Telescope and Rapid Response System (Pan-STARRS) at the University of Hawaii's Institute for Astronomy. We also fabricate single-photon-sensitive imagers based on arrays of silicon or compound semiconductor avalanche photodiodes. These devices have enabled ladar systems that can produce precise 3D terrain maps of the earth and can even see through foliage. These single-photon-sensitive imagers have been used in disaster-relief operations in Haiti and Houston. Finally, our group has developed digital-pixel focal plane arrays that have allowed cameras to perform wide-area infrared surveillance and capture high-dynamic-range imagery while supporting data processing directly on the focal plane.

Featured Projects

A person sits in front of a laptop. A telescope is next to him, pointed up. They are outside, with the city skyline behind them.
Climate Observation
We are collaborating with University of Wisconsin Space Science and Engineering Center to create BiPAL, a new method for identifying and mapping aerosol vertical distributions within the atmosphere.
TESS's cameras, which will monitor planets passing in front of stars, were designed and built by Lincoln Laboratory engineers. Illustration: Chester Beals
space
A new planet hunter will spend the next two years searching for exoplanets, including those that could support life.
This illustration shows OSIRIS-REx contacting the asteroid Bennu. Aboard OSIRIS-REx is the REXIS instrument, for which the Laboratory developed CCDs that will image X-rays emitting from Bennu's surface. Illustration: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center
advanced imaging
Our CCDs will image X-rays emitting from elements on the surface of the asteroid Bennu.

Advancing Our Research

Featured Publications

Large-format Geiger-mode avalanche photodiode arrays and readout circuits

Mar 1
IEEE J. Sel. Top. Quantum Electron., Vol. 24, No. 2, March/April 2018, 3800510.

Photonic lantern kW-class fiber amplifier

Oct 30
Opt. Express, Vol. 25, No. 22, 30 October 2017, pp. 27543-27550.

Directly deposited optical-blocking filters for single-photon x-ray imaging spectroscopy

Jun 28
J. Astron. Telesc. Instrum. Syst., Vol. 3, No. 3 (2017), 036001.

Career Opportunities

Explore job opportunities in the Advanced Imager Technology Group.

Our Staff

View the biographies of members of the Advanced Imager Technology Group.