It has a sensitive wavelength range of 8-14μm and a pixel count of 640 x 480. It is the 640 x 480-pixel infrared sensor that has the world's smallest pixel pitch, NEC said. The pixel pitch was realized by using the company's own MEMS technologies to improve pixel structure.

As a result, it becomes possible to reduce not only sensor size but the size of infrared lens to be combined with the sensor. Compared with a product whose pixel pitch is 23.5μm, lens volume can be reduced by 75%, NEC said.

The infrared sensor measures 24 x 24 x 6.7mm and weighs 11g. Its volume is 1/10 that of NEC's existing product. Because the new sensor enables to drastically reduce the size of infrared camera, it is expected to expand the application of infrared cameras such as monitoring and SAR (search and rescue).

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