Navitar Opens Sensor Integration Unit

Precision optical solutions manufacturer Navitar Inc. has announced the formation of a sensor integration business unit at their headquarters, dedicated to increasing the firm’s capabilities to support applications such as virtual reality cameras, autonomous vehicles, drones and surveillance systems.

“The intent of this new business unit is to increase our capabilities to produce fully integrated, actively aligned lens and camera modules for customers within the computer vision industry,” said Jeremy Goldstein, Co-CEO of Navitar. “Today’s advanced imaging applications such as virtual reality, augmented reality, unmanned aerial vehicles, drone, autonomous vehicles and surveillance require maximum image quality and consistently high performance across all units. Navitar can now give these customers exactly what they are looking for.”

Robert Podlena will lead the new group as vice president of sensor integration. Previously director of engineering, Podlena has more than 30 years of experience in engineering and management.

“Manual lens-to-camera mounting methods simply cannot achieve the level of accuracy required to produce the resolution necessary for these advanced computer vision and imaging applications,” Podlena said. “Automated alignment allows positioning accuracies of <2 µm and angular accuracies in minutes ensuring peak resolution of the sensor/lens assembly.”

Navitar will add additional alignment and test equipment to their recently expanded ISO Class 7 cleanroom, allowing the capacity to meet the broad needs of these exacting customers. Additionally, the group will immediately begin producing camera modules.