You’ll find them in fire suppression systems in US battle tanks, fighter jets and commercial oilrigs. They’ve flown on the Space Shuttle. They play a key role at exhaust emission testing centers, in greenhouse gardening and airplanes, in kitchen appliances and steel factories, ear thermometers and mine safety, weather forecasting and earth measurement. And soon they will be on their way to Mars.

Infrared detectors from Dexter Research Center are everywhere it matters, and after almost thirty years of R&D, their applications in the home, industry and space travel are continuing to grow.

Since its founding in 1977, Dexter Research Center, Inc. in Dexter, Michigan has been an industry leader in the manufacturing of high quality, high output bismuth-antimony thin film and silicon-based radiation sensing thermopile detectors under the direction of Chief Executive Officer Robert Toth, PhD.

The father of commercially feasible infrared thermopile detectors, Dr. Toth was originally an expert on materials and thin film at Ford Scientific Laboratories. He was recruited by a spin-off of the legendary Willow Run Laboratories to commercialize the infrared detector. Pioneering a succession of innovations in the areas of cost, size and performance, Dr. Toth ultimately founded Dexter Research Center, Inc. near Ann Arbor, Michigan to produce the highest quality, customized infrared detectors in the world.

From the beginning, under Dr. Toth’s leadership, Dexter Research Center focused on collaborating with its customers to design, evaluate and build custom detectors for a wide range of applications. The company offers 31 products in over 500 different configurations, far more than all its competitors combined.

Today’s thermopiles deliver a sensitivity range as low as 0.005°C and they cost only a fraction of the original commercial infrared detectors created in the early 1970s.

Continuing its tradition of working with customers, Dexter Research Center has also developed a line of high-performance MEMS-based silicon sensors that offer best-in-class performance at highly competitive prices. Dexter Research delivers the most cost-effective approach, which yields superior detector performance and subsequent superior system performance. The company’s range of 31 detector models include single-channel, multi-channel, imaging arrays, and thermally compensated detectors. Dexter Research Center also manufactures digital radiometers such as its ST60 Smart Sensor, and the Infrared Temperature Logger.

Thermopile detectors are voltage-generating devices, which can be thought of as miniature arrays of thermocouple junctions. Dexter Research’s detectors are hermetically sealed in TO-5, TO-8, TO-18 and Micro TO transistor-type packages, purged with an inert gas of choice, and heat-treated to ensure long-term stability. Thermopile detectors act as a pure resistance and generate no 1/f or microphonic noise, only Johnson noise due to their resistance. Dexter’s thermopiles produce a linear output from 10-6 to 0.1 W/cm2 of incident power. Using Dexter Research Center’s unique energy absorbing materials, their thermopile detectors have essentially flat spectral response from the ultraviolet to the far infrared.

The spectral sensitivity of the detector is selected by the customer’s choice of optical band-pass filters. Always in stock are a wide range of optical filters, window materials, and diffractive lenses. The thermally compensated detector models minimize the effect of sudden changes in ambient temperature.

Dexter Research also offers internally mounted thermistors, optional internal apertures, internal heatsinks, and several choices of package aperture sizes to meet all design constraints. In addition to its standard line of thermopile detectors and modules, Dexter Research Center also designs custom thermopile detectors and modules. Their engineering staff can help achieve the best performing system design for all applications.

Thermopile detectors are used in countless applications, limited only by the imagination. Applications include non-contact temperature measurements such as tympanic ear thermometers, climate control systems for automobiles and occupancy sensing, process temperature monitoring, household appliances, and radiometers; gas analysis in medical, automotive, and petroleum industries; hazard control including flame and explosion detection; horizon sensors for scientific, space, and hobbyist applications.

Whether you are looking at sensitivity, reliability, packaging, manufacturing or systems cost, you’ll find that Dexter Research Center’s infrared detectors are everywhere it matters.

For more information, contact:

Rob Toth, President
Dexter Research Center
7300 Huron River Drive
Dexter, MI 48130
Tel +1 734 426 3921