Proceedings Article | 5 May 2009
Proc. SPIE. 7305, Sensors, and Command, Control, Communications, and Intelligence (C3I) Technologies for Homeland Security and Homeland Defense VIII
KEYWORDS: Microelectromechanical systems, Light emitting diodes, Optical sensors, Homeland security, Optical sensing, Polarization, Sensors, Compound parabolic concentrators, Vertical cavity surface emitting lasers, System on a chip
System-on-chip (SoC) single-die electronic integrated circuit (IC) integration has recently been attracting a great
deal of attention, due to its high modularity, universality, and relatively low fabrication cost. The SoC also has low
power consumption and it is naturally suited to being a base for integration of embedded sensors. Such sensors can
run unattended, and can be either commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) electronic, COTS microelectromechanical
systems (MEMS), or optical-COTS or produced in house (i.e., at Physical Optics Corporation, POC). In the
version with the simplest electronic packaging, they can be integrated with low-power wireless RF that can
communicate with a central processing unit (CPU) integrated in-house and installed on the specific platform of
interest. Such a platform can be a human body (for e-clothing), unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), unmanned ground
vehicle (UGV), or many others. In this paper we discuss SoC-centric embedded unattended sensors in Homeland
Security and military applications, including specific application scenarios (or CONOPS). In one specific example,
we analyze an embedded polarization optical sensor produced in house, including generalized Lambertian light-emitting
diode (LED) sources and secondary nonimaging optics (NIO).
