Aural stealth of portable HOT infrared imager

Further reduction of size, weight and power consumption of the High Operating Temperature (HOT) infrared (IR) Integrated Detector-Dewar-Cooler Assemblies (IDDCA) eventually calls for development of high-speed cryocoolers. In case of integral rotary design, the immediate penalty is the more intensive slapping of compression and expansion pistons along with intensification of micro collisions inherent for the operation of crank-slide linkages featuring ball bearings. Resulting from this is the generation of impulsive vibration export, the spectrum of which features the driving frequency along with numerous multiples covering the entire range of audible frequencies. In a typical design of an infrared imager, the metal light-weight enclosure accommodates a directly mounted IDDCA and an optical train, thus serving as an optical bench and heat sink. This usually results in excitation of structural resonances in the said enclosure and, therefore, in excessive noise generation compromising the aural stealth. The author presents the complex approach to a design of aural undetectable infrared imagers in which the IDDCA is mounted upon the imager enclosure through a silent pad. Special attention is paid to resolving the line of sight stability and heat sinking issues. The demonstration imager relying on Ricor K562S based IDDCA meets the most stringent requirement to 10 meters aural non-detectability distance (per MIL-STD 1474D, Level II) even during boost cooldown phase of operation.