INFRARED DETECTORS

In the ten years since Ulis was founded, the company has become the world’s secondleading supplier of uncooled infrared detectors for civil applications. With 96% of its revenue generated outside France, the company has established itself as a global leader in amorphous silicon technology.

Technology

Amorphous silicon offers numerous advantages over the vanadium oxide typically used in infrared detectors, such as high spatial uniformity and predictable temperature behavior.

Ulis, which holds an exclusive license based on Leti-patented technology, has leveraged these advantages to develop stateof- the-art systems for industrial thermography, firefighting, healthcare, and airport security applications. The company has more recently been able to expand into other high-potential markets like surveillance, driver assistance, and low-end thermography systems, thanks largely to sharp reductions in both pixel size (which has shrunk from 45 to 17 microns) and the cost of making uncooled infrared detection systems.

The company is based just outside Grenoble and performs advanced R&D with Leti through research agreements, which result in the filing of some four to six patents every year.