Apr 7 2010
Kopin® Corporation (Nasdaq: KOPN) will launch a new family of complete plug-and-play eyepiece products for thermal imaging applications at the Defense, Security, and Sensing 2010 Symposium, which runs today through Thursday at the Orlando World Center Marriott Resort & Convention Center in Orlando, Florida. The Symposium is sponsored by the Society for Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE), an international organization advancing the science and application of light. Visitors to the Kopin booth (#317) will be able to see real-time product demonstrations.
Kopin's standard eyepiece product was designed for and qualified on the Light, Medium and Heavy Thermal Weapons Sights (LTWS, MTWS, HTWS) in the U.S. Army's TWS-IIB program
Kopin, the leading manufacturer of microdisplays for the U.S. military, will introduce standard and custom eyepiece solutions based upon the new CyberDisplay® 640M LVR microdisplay, an ultra-low-power active matrix liquid crystal display (AMLCD) with near instant-on capability. The standard eyepiece product has been fully qualified in the U.S. Army’s Thermal Weapon Sight Bridge (TWS-IIB) program on an array of weapons including the M14, M4, M2, M24, M249 and M240 machine gun. This product is in production and available for sale.
“The products we are unveiling today demonstrate the superior reliability and imaging quality of our AMLCD system solutions,” said Michael Presz, Kopin’s Vice President of Government Programs. “Our AMLCD technology not only provides the lowest power display solution but also meets stringent military imaging system requirements over the entire operating temperature range without the need for complex compensation required in other technologies. Our flat-field gray scale performance is unmatched, with no fixed-pattern noise to mask scene content or cause false detection. In addition, our contrast ratio is constant over the entire brightness range, providing warfighters with the full range of detection capabilities while completely dark adapted.”
Kopin’s standard eyepiece product was designed for and qualified on the Light, Medium and Heavy Thermal Weapons Sights (LTWS, MTWS, HTWS) in the U.S. Army’s TWS-IIB program. This rugged solution provides a VGA-resolution (640x480) monochrome in a 30-degree diagonal field-of-view (FOV). Based on Kopin’s newest AMLCD architecture, the display system, including the display, backlight and driver electronics, dissipates less than 155 mW while displaying full-rate video at 60 Hz and less than 20 mW in low-power standby mode. This standard eyepiece product can be customized to adapt to a variety of thermal imaging systems including tripod-mounted, vehicle-mounted, hand-held and head-mounted systems.
“We are delighted to add the thermal eyepiece product line to our growing family of high-level assembly (HLA) products, which are rapidly becoming recognized as the industry standards for a broad range of imaging applications,” said Kopin President and Chief Executive Officer Dr. John C.C. Fan. “Because these products are exposed to harsh battlefield environments, each system undergoes extensive testing, including shock, vibration and environmental stress screening prior to delivery. Kopin has invested for years to develop our core display technologies and class-10 HLA clean room facilities, and more recently to enhance our capabilities in optical characterization, reliability testing, environmental testing, and FOD (foreign objects and debris) screening. These achievements, combined with our high-volume production capabilities, broad product offerings and strong financial position, are resulting in significant interest across a number of major DOD primes.”