ULIS Invests €20M in New IR Sensor Facility

On its tenth year anniversary, ULIS announced a €20 million investment in a new state-of-the-art facility to meet increasing market demands for infrared (IR) technology.

Sales of uncooled IR cameras will grow from 320,000 units in 2011 to 1.1 million units in 2017, according to a Yole Developpement report. Figures also show that the market share for uncooled IR imagers for commercial applications will represent more than 80 percent of the total uncooled IR imaging market, with the slice for military applications shrinking from around 30 to 15 percent.

For the first time, ULIS will introduce to the market a series of low cost IR sensors through its new facility. These high-volume, low-cost IR sensors will use new packaging technologies, such as pixel level and wafer level packaging technologies.

The new facility will also allow the company to move production from 150 mm to advanced 200 mm silicon CMOS wafers. Because of this, ULIS will introduce a new product line aimed at filling a gap in the supply for low image resolution IR sensors needed for applications to enhance the energy efficiency of heating and cooling systems or for detecting people.

”The new facility will give ULIS access to an advanced class of CMOS and packaging technologies that we’ll be able to exploit, without interrupting production of our existing pro and elite product lines,” said Jean-Luc Tissot, technical director.

“This €20 million investment in a new state-of-the-art IR sensor facility is another major step in our growth,” said Jean-François Delepau, managing director. “In particular, this investment will go a long way in boosting our penetration into emerging high volume market areas, such as automotive and low-resolution sensors, and in giving us a substantial lead.”

ULIS, a subsidiary of Sofradir and GE Equity, designs and manufactures infrared imaging sensors for thermography, security and surveillance, automotive and military applications.

For more information, visit: www.ulis-ir.com