Lockheed Martin (LM) announced an exclusive licensing agreement with Dr. Shimon Maimon, CEO 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 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.
"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, California.
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.