Raytheon, Electrophysics team to develop thermal imager with PDA technology

Raytheon Commercial Infrared (RCI; Dallas, TX), a manufacturer of infrared (IR) thermal imaging products, has introduced the Radiometric PalmIR 500D, a low-cost hand-held IR camera for qualitative, real-time applications. The new system, which integrates a Compaq iPAQ personal digital assistant (PDA), was developed with Electrophysics of Fairfield, NJ. Electrophysics also engineered the camera's radiometric measurement capability utilizing Raytheon's new digital BST (barium strontium titanate) IR electronics.

The Radiometric PalmIR 500D utilizes a 320 x 240 uncooled BST focal plane array and is able to measure temperatures up to 300 degrees C. Digital images are recorded and displayed in the iPAQ.

“This is an exciting new addition to our product portfolio,”explains Jay James, RCI Director of Sales and Marketing. “We are very pleased with the innovations that Electrophysic's has made to the camera. By taking advantage of Raytheon's digital infrared capability, they've successfully developed a radiometer that has better than bolometer imagery and capability.”

Electrophysics Managing Director Frank Vallese adds: “We had been calibrating pyroelectric imaging systems for many years. We introduced a radiometric fire service camera based on Raytheon BST technology nearly 3 years ago and found we were able to refine our calibration techniques to meet the accuracy requirements thermography users require. PDA display and image recorder development enabled us to leverage our systems engineering expertise.”