Infrared detectors are widely used in remote sensing, night-vision imaging, security monitoring, industrial inspection, spectroscopy, and machine vision, etc. Among them, the cooled photon-type infrared detector meets the requirements for high-end specialized applications. The temperature required for cooling infrared detectors varies according to the different wavelengths (from short, medium, long to very-long wavelengths). The cooling capacity required varies according to the pixel and focal plane array size. According to the different specific applications, there are strict requirements on weight, volume, power consumption, continuous MTBF, vibration and noise levels of the cryocoolers.
At present, the prevailing cryocooler for the infrared detecters is still the rotary Stirling cryocooler, for which the main advantages are lightweight, compact and low power consumption, while its greatest disadvantages are short MTBF, high noise level, and especially low cooling capacity and higher cooling temperature such as only up to 50 K, which is hard to apply to detectors with long and very-long wavelengths or larger array sizes. We developed a series of single and multi-stage compact and lightweight long-life high-frequency pulse tube cryocoolers which could effectively cover 2 K to ambient temperature, and could meet the customized cooling needs of infrared detectors with various wavelengths known so far.
