2025-05-01

1. How many type of infrared thermal imagers (Cameras) ?

Answer:

1st:  There are two types of infrared thermal imager from the working mode: refrigeration type(cooled type) and uncooled type. In terms of structure, refrigeration infrared thermal imager,another name is cooled thermal imager,has a refrigeration module, which use liquid nitrogen or Stirling refrigerator to reduce the working temperature of chip to - 190 ℃, so as to reduce the thermal radiation generated by the core as much as possible.

Working principle

2nd: From the design of infrared thermal imagers, such as, monocular, binocular,ball-design etc.

Monocular

Binocular

Ball

3rd: From the use of infrared thermal imagers, there are hunting, fire prevention, rescue ,military etc.

Fire prevention

Hunting

Military use

2. What is the difference between uncooled and refrigeration infrared thermal imagers?

Answer:

1st : structures

The imaging detector of the refrigeration infrared thermal imager is equipped with an integrated low-temperature refrigerator device, which can reduce the detector temperature to the cooling temperature, while the imaging detector equipped with the uncooled infrared thermal imager does not need low-temperature cooling.

Uncooled FPA detector

refrigeration  FPA detector

FPA=focal plane array

2nd : Sensitivity, accuracy and error

When the refrigeration infrared thermal imager works, the refrigerator runs first to reduce its own temperature. In this way, when detecting other objects, it has higher sensitivity, higher accuracy, smaller error and wider detection temperature range. The uncooled infrared thermal imager can not compare with the refrigeration infrared thermal imager in these aspects, especially the nonuniformity of uncooled infrared focal plane array has great influence on the measurement error. NETD (noise equivalent temperature difference)

The NETD of refrigeration infrared thermal imager is generally between 10-30mk, such as MH’s  NETD is 10-17mk, and non refrigeration infrared thermal imager is generally greater than 50mk. Therefore, the infrared thermal imager with refrigeration has better resolution ability than uncooled infrared imager

The lower the NETD value, the better. Typically, uncooled bolometric detector has NETD of 30-200 mK. While cooled photon detecting IR detectors can approach a NETD value of 10 mK.

3rd : Observation distance

The sensing and recognition distance of the refrigeration infrared thermal imager is obviously much higher than that of the uncooled infrared thermal imager. Generally speaking, the thermal imager with the recognition distance more than 5km will adopt the refrigeration type.

4th: Power consumption

The refrigeration infrared thermal imager needs the refrigerator to cool down when it works, so it will consume more energy, and the power consumption is larger than that of the uncooled infrared thermal imager.

5th: Service life

The service life of the refrigeration infrared thermal imager is closely related to its own cooler. The working time of the cooler is directly related to the service life of the infrared thermal imager. The service life of the uncooled infrared thermal imager is longer than that of the uncooled infrared thermal imager. However, due to the aging of the components, the measurement accuracy will also be reduced.

6th: Reliability

The refrigeration infrared thermal imager has high precision, small error and high sensitivity, which makes the detection results more reliable.

7th: Price

The price of the refrigerated infrared thermal imager is much higher, but the price of the uncooled one is relatively much lower.

8th. Volume,size,weight

The volume, size and weight of the refrigerated infrared thermal imager is larger than that of the uncooled one due to the need of the refrigerator working together.

9th:  Application

In the military field, for short distance observation, consideration of the cost, uncooled infrared imager is used more, but for long distance detecting and identification, normally use refrigeration infrared thermal imager.

Choose The Best Device For Your Thermal Needs

MH Tech takes research, development, and quality control seriously,and have advanced technology and production line on cooled and uncooled thermal imagers,if you are in the market for thermal devices, contact by:

jacky@mh-elec.com

WhatsApp: +86-18792456795