Dallas, TX

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Overview

Infrared Sensors & Systems Center of Excellence

The Leonardo DRS Electro-Optical & Infrared Systems business unit in Dallas, Texas designs and produces infrared sensors and sub-systems that support aviation, ground vehicle, soldier and commercial markets.

These sensors include both Vanadium Oxide (VOx) based uncooled bolometers and Mercury Cadmium Telluride (MCT) based cooled photon detectors.

Core sensor competencies beyond these Focal Plane Arrays (FPA) include long-life cryogenic coolers, vacuum Dewars as well as Read-Out Integrated Circuit (ROIC) and electronics design.

Leonardo DRS’ staff in Dallas includes some of the pioneers of infrared imaging that began in the 1960’s as part of Texas Instruments’ Defense Systems and Electronics Group (DSEG). Our foundation in military electro-optic solutions include 1^st Generation (1^st Gen) Common Module, 2^nd Gen and now 3^rd Gen Forward Looking Infrared (FLIR) nodes as well as the various generations of thermal weapons sights, night vision googles and Driver’s Vision Enhancers. Leonardo DRS has also expanded into the commercial/industrial market with products that support the thermography, preventative maintenance, medical and surveillance markets.

The Dallas site includes approximately 197,000 ft² of fully facilitized space across four buildings. This vertically integrated facility supports FPA material growth and fabrication, Integrated Dewar/Cooler Assembly and Integration, Engineering, Management, Manufacturing and Support Functions.

Leonardo DRS in Dallas is in the unique position of having the services of two separate FPA manufacturing facilities. The first is a low-volume manufacturing facility (known as Focal Plane Array Development, or FPAD) and the second is a large-volume wafer manufacturing facility (known as Focal Plane Array Manufacturing, or FPAM). It consists of a Class 100 clean room and supports a demonstrated yielded production output of more than 300 cooled sensors and 10,000 uncooled detector units/month. Combined they represent 16,000 ft²of Class 100 clean rooms.

Leonardo DRS in Dallas also maintains 7,000 ft²of Class 100 and 20,000 ft²of Class 100K clean rooms for the assembly and integration of cooled vacuum Dewars, cryogenic Coolers, and uncooled packages. Additionally, Leonardo DRS has two light manufacturing areas supporting various uncooled modules.

The Dallas, Texas facility is a major supplier of 2nd and 3rd generation mercury cadmium telluride (MCT) focal plane arrays, uncooled microbolometer products, cryogenic coolers, integrated Dewar assemblies for tactical applications and several higher level sub-system assemblies such as threat warning and targeting sensors. Leonardo DRS Dallas has as a broad customer base of U.S. Government and DoD prime contracts in research, development, production and sustaining phases of maturity.

Leonardo DRS is truly at the forefront of IR detectors providing the smallest most sensitive detector assemblies for uncooled and cooled applications in the world; these assemblies are the heart of EO systems.