The demand for infrared lens of UAV optoelectronic payload platform

A few days ago, the unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) industry is growing rapidly. According to the analysis of Teal Group, the global market share of unmanned aerial vehicles will reach 135 billion US dollars in the next decade. The drone market is primarily comprised of defense, government, and commercial applications. In defense and government, drones are used for military and e surveillance, border control, security, and search and rescue operations. According to incomplete statistics, between 2009 and early 2017, at least 347 law enforcement and emergency management agencies in the United States used drones. In the commercial drone market, demand continues to grow from time to time, and commercial drones equipped with optoelectronic payloads play a prominent role in power line inspections, oil pipeline inspections, firefighting, and other infrastructure equipment. The electro-optical payload is an important part of the unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) system. The photoelectric load of the UAV is generally composed of visible (Visible), infrared (IR), laser (Laser) and other sensors to meet the all-day and all-weather application requirements of the system platform, especially the infrared component, which has become the standard of the photoelectric load. . With the increasing range of the array FPA of the infrared detector, the pixel size is getting smaller and smaller, and the infrared lens with good imaging quality, small size, light weight, and suitable for the UAV platform has become the best way to improve the imaging performance of infrared components. key. Although the improvement of the resolution of the infrared detector can improve its imaging performance accordingly, but if the imaging quality of the lens is not maximized, the high resolution advantage of the detector cannot be fully released. In addition, in an optically limited (Optics-limited) system, the imaging quality of the lens is the most important indicator, even with the best detectors, poor quality lenses will produce poor quality images. In order to match these high-performance infrared detectors, it is necessary to complete the infrared lens with minimum aberration through more perfect design and tighter tolerance control. In addition, the focal length of the lens also needs to be as long as possible to improve its spatial resolution, so that the photoelectric payload platform can observe objects with rich details at a distance. In addition, the development of UAV optoelectronic payload has its own characteristics, and its payload needs to consider three elements of size, weight and power consumption (Swap, Size, Weight and Power consumption). UAV payloads, especially small commercial UAVs, have increasingly stringent size and weight requirements. In order to maximize the flight time of the UAV, it is necessary to reduce the energy consumption to reduce the use of fuel. As a result, the challenge facing infrared lenses is to design and produce compact and lightweight lenses, and small size is the most critical. Of course, these are premised on image performance not affected. To meet these optical needs, technical solutions with certain characteristics are required. These technical plans include innovative optical and mechanical designs, advanced materials, advanced optical processing technologies, resulting in the need for unique lens coatings. Diamond Turning technology can be used to manufacture high-precision aspheric surfaces and diffractive surfaces with special annular bands. Optical lenses manufactured by diamond turning technology were once commonly used in infrared lenses. The diffractive surface attached to the aspherical substrate can integrate various aberration correction capabilities, such as chromatic and spherical aberration correction. Additionally, diamond turning can combine multiple lens elements together, reducing overall size and weight. High-performance infrared multi-field or continuous zoom lenses are another way to reduce their size and weight. Multi-field or continuous zoom lenses are smaller and lighter than lenses that utilize multiple single fields of view. In addition, the continuous zoom lens allows the magnification to be changed arbitrarily according to the needs during the execution of the task, which can be more sensitive and better to complete the task. Durable, highly effective antireflection coatings are also key to improving the optical performance of a lens without compromising the size or weight of the lens. The high-efficiency lens film layer reduces the residual reflection to reduce transmission loss, and can suppress the internal and external interference of the lens, and improve the image contrast. Advanced coating technology can be used to produce special coatings. While enhancing optical performance, these coatings also require robust environmental compliance. An excellent optical solution is the key to the UAV optoelectronic payload platform, which maximizes the imaging quality and requires the characteristics of SWaP. As drone technology unfolds and drone demand increases, optics will continue to play an important role.