What We Do
Nu-Trek has been developing advanced sensing solutions and radio frequency front ends leveraging DoD SBIR contracts. We now have a large library of high-performance circuit blocks to use in new designs as well as other intellectual property.
Nu-Trek offers design services and make the circuit blocks and the intellectual property available to the sensor community. You are invited to contact us to discuss your interests and needs.
Readout Integrated Circuit (ROIC) Cryo-Test Setup
“Full Frame” Thermal Imaging
Under the leadership of Nu-Trek’s Technical Director, Steve Black, Nu-Trek has been developing “full frame” readout integrated circuits for the next generation thermal sensors. Mr. Black holds 31 patents, more than half of which are for the advancement of thermal sensing.
The transition from the "row by row" bias currently in use to a "full frame" bias in the next generation of thermal sensors, will improve image clarity and reduce the risk of missing critical details and dynamic objects. Full frame ROICs also support more advanced post-processing techniques, enabling users to extract richer insights and conduct in-depth analyses for a wide range of applications. You are invited to contact us for additional information on the ROICs for thermal sensors.
Nu-Trek’s Chestnut ROIC for “full frame” thermal imaging.
The Chestnut ROIC under design verification testing (DVT).
Digital, Low SWaP Front End IC
Under the leadership of Dr. Mike Wu, Nu-Trek is developing the µDetRH integrated circuit, a digital, low size, weight, and power front end IC for radiation detectors. Dr. Wu is highly skilled in all aspect of front-end design and verification, and introduced a number of innovations to achieve the required performance and the very low SWaP. Two patents for this technology are being prepared for submission.
The DetRH IC will replace quite a number of analog parts and printed circuit boards, greatly reducing SWaP/C, significantly improving performance in applications where space and weight constraints are critical, such as in portable or wearable radiation detection devices. The greatly reduced power consumption extends battery life, enabling longer operation times in the field or remote locations. It also offers more advanced signal processing capabilities, including gamma and neutron discrimination, and is easier to interface with data acquisition systems.
These advantages make it an attractive choice for a wide range of radiation detection applications including healthcare, nuclear safety, environmental monitoring, and homeland security. You are invited to contact us for additional information on the digital front end IC.
Test bench for development and end-to-end verification of the µDetRH IC and sensor.
The µDetRH IC can be used for detectors and scintillators. A scintillator implementation, with a SiPM, is shown.
IR Imaging
Jim Asbrock, Jim Elliott, and Steve Black are expert ROIC designers and system engineers, respectively. Under their leadership, Nu-Trek designed quite a number of ROICs for imagers with single and dual bands, for small, middle, and long-wave infrared detectors, and for diverse applications.
Featured in this section are two ROICs that were designed for Missile Defense Agency, Iris and White Oak. Jim Asbrock was the lead designer for Iris and Mike Wu was the lead designer for White Oak. Iris is a ROIC for a seeker and has a rad hard counterpart, Cosmos, which includes a novel gamma/beta filter in each unit cell.
White Oak is a sensor for space applications that utilizes the ReImagine architecture and digital ROIC developed by DARPA and MIT LL. The analog ROIC designed by Nu-Trek is designed for 3D integration with the MIT LL digital ROIC, an architecture that enables substantial on-ROIC processing.
You are invited to contact us for additional information on the imager ROICs and sensors.
Iris focal plane array (FPA) under test.
Depicted in these images is Nu-Trek’s mixed mode architecture, which is used when very high dynamic range is required. The “residue” charge (blue) is constantly increasing. When the residue charge is equal to the charge of an MSB, an MSB count (red) is generated and the residue is reset. At the end of frame the residue is digitized, which determines the LSBs and the LSBs are added to the MSBs.
Entire Frame
Portion of left image showing the increasing LSBs and MSBs.
Packaged Iris FPA, including Iris readout and HgCdTe detector
Test board that automates the characterization of the White Oak test chip to speed up TID testing and use during SEE testing.
Flash Lidar
Jim Asbrock was the Raytheon Vision Systems (RVS) lead for flash Lidar. Fielded sensors included flash Lidar sensor used for spacecraft docking. Under Jim Asbrock’ s leadership, Nu-Trek developed architectures and designs for a number of flash Lidar ROICs including three that combined flash Lidar with imaging and / or other modalities. We also designed a readout for a 32 sample Lidar. Featured in this section is the Artemis ROIC which has three outputs. You are invited to contact us if you would like additional information on the flash Lidar ROICs and sensors.
High frame rate bits
High dynamic range bits
LIDAR data at laser rep rate
Flash Lidar sensors can be implemented in a broad range of platforms and can be combined with other sensors in a turret for superior autonomous target recognition (ATR). It can also augment radar to improve performance. The image to the right illustrates an implementation in a MH-60 Black Hawk Helicopter. The flash Lidar data was combined with geo-location data in order to annotate the map.
The 3 outputs of the Artemis ROIC.
RF Solutions for Precision Navigation
Controlled reception pattern antenna (CRPA) based anti-jam solutions are very effective at nulling multiple, high powered jammers and are used in military platforms and weapons that are required to operate in highly jammed environments. These anti-jam solutions are presently in use in large, high value platforms. The µPNT is the first powerful anti-jam solution for small platforms. It is based on Nu-Trek's high dynamic range X-Jam-02 RFIC and a powerful anti-jam filter developed by one of the leading suppliers of military GPS receivers. It provides small platforms a highly effective anti-jam solution that is currently unavailable. The µPNT was demonstrated at a couple of “jam fests” and performed very well.
µPNT circuit card assembly. 4-channel anti-jam antenna electronic unit with high jammer-to-signal (J/S) ratio.
Packaged X-Jam-02. Single channel RF front-end with high linearity and high dynamic range.