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Advances in imaging technology have huge impact on our daily lives. Innovations in optics, focal plane arrays (FPA), microelectronics and computation have revolutionized camera design. As a result, new approaches to camera design and low cost manufacturing is now possible. These advances are clearly evident in visible wavelength band due to pixel scaling, improvements in silicon material and CMOS technology. CMOS cameras are available in cell phones and many other consumer products. Advances in infrared imaging technology have been slow due to market volume and many technological barriers in detector materials, optics and fundamental limits imposed by the scaling laws of optics. There is of course much room for improvements in both, visible and infrared imaging technology. This paper highlights various technology development projects at DARPA to advance the imaging technology for both, visible and infrared. Challenges and potentials solutions are highlighted in areas related to wide field-of-view camera design, small pitch pixel, broadband and multiband detectors and focal plane arrays.

This Chapter covers recent advances in Short Wavelength Infrared (SWIR), Medium Wavelength Infrared (MWIR) and Long Wavelength Infrared (LWIR) materials and device technologies for a variety of defense and commercial applications. Infrared technology is critical for military and security applications, as well as increasingly being used in many commercial products such as medical diagnostics, drivers' enhanced vision, machine vision and a multitude of other applications, including consumer products. The key enablers of such infrared products are the detector materials and designs used to fabricate focal plane arrays (FPAs). Since the 1950s, there has been considerable progress towards the materials development and device design innovations. In particular, significant advances have been made during the past decade in the band-gap engineering of various compound semiconductors that has led to new and emerging detector architectures. Advances in optoelectronics related materials science, such as metamaterials and nanostructures, have opened doors for new approaches to apply device design methodologies, which are expected to offer enhanced performance and low cost products in a wide range of applications. This chapter reviews advancements in the mainstream detector technologies and presents different device architectures and discussions. The chapter introduces the basics of infrared detection physics and various infrared wavelength band characteristics. The subject is divided into individual infrared atmospheric transmission windows to address related materials, detector design and device performance. Advances in pixel scaling, junction formation, materials growth, and processing technologies are discussed. We discuss the SWIR band (1-3 microns) and address some of the recent advances in In-GaAs, SiGe and HgCdTe based technologies and their applications. We also discuss MWIR band that covers 3-5 microns, and its applications. Some of the key work discussed includes InSb, HgCdTe, and III-V based Strained Layer Super Lattice (SLS) and barrier detector tech

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