Lockheed Martin Licenses New Breakthrough Infrared Technology
Lockheed Martin [NYSE: LMT] announced an exclusive licensing agreement with Dr. Shimon Maimon, chief executive officer of IR Solutions, Ltd., for use of his company’s inventions to produce lighter, higher resolution and more reliable infrared sensors for military applications.
The licensing arrangement will allow the development of improved Forward Looking Infrared systems that use Dr. Maimon’s patented “n-type-Barrier-n-type” (nBn) and other barrier-type focal plane inventions. They are described in recently issued U.S. Patent 7,687,871 (Reduced Dark Current Photodetector). nBn technology allows detector coolers for infrared systems to operate at higher temperatures than currently, reducing complexity and increasing system performance.
“Lockheed Martin believes the nBn technology has the potential to have wide-ranging positive impacts upon next-generation infrared systems,” said Rob Hearst, director of nBn Technology Integration at Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control. “This game-changing technology will allow us to produce larger arrays that require less cooling than existing systems, and will ultimately lower operations and sustainment costs for our military customers.”
Research and products related to the new nBn technology will be managed and produced at Lockheed Martin’s Santa Barbara Focalplane facility in Goleta, CA.
“Improvements to nBn technology made by Dr. Jeff Scott and the Santa Barbara Focalplane nBn team will enable us to develop future infrared systems with significantly higher system reliability and performance,” said Hearst. “High-resolution nBn performance will result in better navigation, targeting and situational awareness systems.”
Lockheed Martin has delivered more than 8,000 combat-proven navigation, targeting and situational awareness systems. They include the Sniper® Advanced Targeting Pod, the F-35 Lightning Electro-Optical Targeting System, targeting and pilotage systems for the U.S. Army Apache attack helicopter and U.S. Marine Corps Cobra attack helicopter, as well as Gyrocam sensors for U.S. ground vehicles.
Headquartered in Bethesda, Md., Lockheed Martin is a global security company that employs about 133,000 people worldwide and is principally engaged in the research, design, development, manufacture, integration and sustainment of advanced technology systems, products and services. The Corporation’s 2009 sales from continuing operations were $44.0 billion.