Seminar: "Infrared Systems, Military Imaging, Commercialization, and the Future" by Ronald G. Driggers, 5.10.16/11:00AM-12:00PM/CREOL RM 103

Seminar: "Infrared Systems, Military Imaging, Commercialization, and the Future" by Ronald G. Driggers

Wednesday, May 10, 2017 11:00 AM to 12:00 PM
CREOL Room 103

Ronald G. Driggers
CEO, St. Johns Optical Systems

Abstract:

Infrared Systems design, analysis, performance, and characterization require a knowledge of sources, backgrounds, atmospherics, optics, detectors, electronics, signal processing, and human vision. These specific areas provide for a lifetime of research and development and can be further granularized (for example, infrared detectors include microbolometers, pyrometers, HgCdTe, InSb, T2SL, nBn, PbSe, QWIP, QCD, InGaAs, Si and others where any one of these areas support hundreds of full time researchers). Infrared systems experts determine the important parameters of these imaging system components and use progress to provide new capabilities, higher performance, smaller size and weight, and lower cost. In this seminar, we describe the primary military infrared imaging modes such as targeting, ISR (intelligence-surveillance-reconnaissance), persistent ISR, threat warning, IRST (infrared search and track), and their performance metrics. In addition, the latest progress and new breakthroughs in infrared systems are provided along with how they are impacting the commercialization of infrared technologies. Multifunction systems, wafer level packaging, small pitch detectors, deep wells/digital ROIC, high operating temperature detectors, and flat/freeform optics are all changing future infrared systems. Other research interests such as computational imaging, infrared modeling and measurements, and basic questions on how to see further are briefly explored.

Biography:

Ronald G. Driggers is currently the CEO of St. Johns Optical Systems in Lake Mary, Florida (since Oct 2014). Previously, he was appointed to the Senior Executive Service as the Superintendent of the Optical Sciences Division at the Naval Research Laboratory in 2008. There, he managed the efforts of more than 200 scientists and engineers and over $100M in research and development programs. Before 2008, he was the Director of the Modeling and Simulation Division at the U.S. Army’s Night Vision and Electronic Sensors Directorate (NVESD) and a brief period as the Chief of the Electro-Optics and Photonics Division at the Army Research Laboratory.  For 10 years, Dr. Driggers was the U.S. Representative to the NATO SET Technical Group on Infrared Systems. Dr. Driggers received a doctorate in electrical engineering from the University of Memphis in 1990, is the author of five books on Infrared and Electro-Optics Systems and has published over 130 research papers.  He was Editor-in-Chief of the Encyclopedia of Optical Engineering (Taylor and Francis).  He was selected as the 2002 Army Materiel Command’s Engineer of the Year, 2001 CERDEC Technical Employee of the Year, and 2001 NVESD Technical Employee of the Year.  He was a U.S. Naval Reserve Officer and was selected as the 2001 Naval Engineering Duty Officer of the Year (William Kastner Award).  He is also a Fellow of the International Society for Optical Engineering, the Optical Society of America, and the Military Sensing Symposium.  In January 2010, he was assigned as Editor-in-Chief of SPIE’s flagship journal, Optical Engineering, and served as editor for five years.  In January 2015, he took over duties as the Editor-in-Chief of the Optical Society of America’s journal Applied Optics.

For additional information:

Bahaa Saleh