A process for producing an optical element, which may be suitable for use in an infrared camera with sharp surface features and low emissivity surfaces, including the steps of casting the element in the desired shape in a zinc alloy, deburring the zinc alloy element with a thermal deburring operation, and coating the deburred zinc alloy element with an electrocoating operation.

A device for determining the connection quality of threaded tubular components includes a case configured for mounting on an external surface portion of a threaded tubular component, at least one measuring device including a contact layer including a plurality of temperature sensors arranged to measure variables representative of temperatures at a plurality of locations E(i,j) of the external surface of the end of the tubular component.

A mobile thermal sensor system, a mobile device case, and a process for fabricating a mobile thermal sensor system are described that include using a heat spreader (e.g., a heat sink). In an implementation, the mobile thermal sensor system includes a substrate configured to support an electrical component; a thermal detector package coupled to the substrate, the thermal detector package including a first thermopile, a second thermopile, and a reference temperature detector; and a heat spreader coupled to the substrate. In another implementation, a mobile device case can include a case configured to house a mobile device, where the mobile device includes a mobile thermal sensor system.

An infrared detection element includes a pyroelectric body, first and second light receiving electrodes, and blackened films. The first light receiving electrode is provided on a surface of the pyroelectric body and receives infrared light from a first region. The second light receiving electrode is provided on a surface of the pyroelectric body and receives infrared light from a second region. The blackened films are provided on a surface of the first light receiving electrode and are not provided on a surface of the light second receiving electrode. Thus, infrared reception sensitivity is different between the first light receiving electrode and the second light receiving electrode.

A thermal imaging system comprises a substrate, stacked graphene arrays on the substrate, and a number of bandpass filters separating the stacked graphene arrays.

A high-resolution thermopile infrared sensor array having monolithically integrated signal processing and a plurality of parallel signal processing channels for the signals from pixels of a sensor array, and a digital port for the serial output of the pixel signals are provided, wherein the sensor array is located on one or more sensor chips. The thermal piled infrared sensor array possesses low power loss, high integration density and high thermal and geometric resolution. Each signal processing channel (K.sub.1 . . . K.sub.N) has at least one analogue/digital converter (ADC), and is assigned a memory region in a memory (RAM) for storing the signals from the pixels (SE).

Apparatuses, methods, and systems are disclosed to characterize the wear and measure temperature of a surface of a lining of a metallurgical container. Wear characterization is accomplished by a scanning device by making thickness measurements of the lining and surface temperature measurements are made using a two-color pyrometer integrated with the scanning device where surface temperature is measured by correlating a ratio of two light intensities to the surface temperature. A controller controls operation of the scanning device and the two-color pyrometer.

A polarization and color sensitive pixel device and a focal plane array made therefrom. Each incorporates a thick color/polarization filter stack and microlens array for visible (0.4-0.75 micron), near infrared (0.75-3 micron), mid infrared (3-8 micron) and long wave infrared (8-15 micron) imaging. A thick pixel filter has a thickness of between about one to 10? the operational wavelength, while a thick focal plane array filter is on the order of or larger than the size or up to 10? the pitch of the pixels in the focal plane array. The optical filters can be precisely fabricated on a wafer. A filter array can be mounted directly on top of an image sensor to create a polarization camera. Alternatively, the optical filters can be fabricated directly on the image sensor.

Apparatuses, methods, and systems are disclosed to characterize the wear and measure temperature of a surface of a lining of a metallurgical container. Wear characterization is accomplished by a scanning device by making thickness measurements of the lining and surface temperature measurements are made using a two-color pyrometer integrated with the scanning device where surface temperature is measured by correlating a ratio of two light intensities to the surface temperature. A controller controls operation of the scanning device and the two-color pyrometer.

In one embodiment, an infrared (IR) sensor module includes an IR sensor assembly, including a substrate, a microbolometer array disposed on an upper surface of the substrate; and a cap disposed on the upper surface of the substrate and hermetically enclosing the microbolometer array. A base is disposed below the substrate, and a heat spreader having a generally planar portion is interposed between a lower surface of the substrate and an upper surface of the base. In some embodiments, the heat spreader can include a material having an anisotropic thermal conductivity, e.g., graphite.