Contract work / Optics & light
Infrared flash illuminator
A capacitor-driven infrared LED prototype for brief, broad-area illumination.
Open the numbered review →Driver and emitter array
Photos 233–234

A client wanted a short, bright infrared flash to illuminate a broad area. I built a driver that stored energy in capacitors and delivered brief pulses to an array of infrared LEDs. This photo shows the prototype’s driver electronics and emitter assemblies.

These are the infrared emitters for the flash prototype. I do not recall their exact wavelength. In a revised version, I would mount the LEDs to an aluminum heat sink to give the assembly better thermal durability, even though the intended operation used brief, infrequent pulses.
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