The Air Force wants to develop a compact, solid state night vision sensor that will replace the image intensifier tube in current night vision goggles.
Impetus for the project comes from the need for a new generation of head-mounted night vision systems. Existing sensor technology for head-mounted systems "cannot provide the same performance, particularly at the lowest light levels, as compared to the latest image intensification technology," reads the Air Force research solicitation.
The service is looking for research to find a way to integrate a high performance sensor into a head-mounted night-vision optical system to truly provide a digital capability.
Among the failings of current sensors are size, weight, cost of image intensifier tubes, limited capability to transmit images, inability to project symbols on the display and limited spectrum.
Read the SBIR for the specifications the Air Force is looking for.
