Meridian Innovation: Leading the Thermal Imaging Revolution

TAIPEI, Dec. 14, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- The global thermal imaging market is forecast to reach $4.7 billion by 2026, up from around $3.6 billion in 2021, reflecting a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 5.5% from 2021 to 2026, according to research firm MarketsandMarkets. Key factors driving growth include rising demand for advanced thermal imaging solutions in verticals including aerospace and defense, automotive industry—particularly with the increasing adoption of advanced driver-assistance systems (ADAS)—manufacturing, healthcare, and life sciences. The growing demand for wireless temperature sensors is likewise expected to help boost the growth of this market.

And one of the leading solutions providers is Meridian Innovation, a pioneering developer of complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS) thermal imaging solutions enabling mass producible long-wave infrared (LWIR) products for consumer and commercial applications.

Founded by Leow Chon Hock and Hasan Gadjali in 2016, the company is headquartered in Singapore, with major R&D and manufacturing operations in Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan, the United States, and the UK.

"In the 1990s, my curiosity in technological pursuits had driven me to work on standardization of the JPEG and MPEG technologies, which is now widely used for capturing everyday moments through photos and videos," says Gadjali, who is also the chief operating officer (COO) of the company. "As a co-founder of Meridian Innovation, I hope to continue my passion on imaging advancements to develop a low-cost CMOS thermal imaging sensor that can sense the invisible even in the dark by detecting heat of humans and easily differentiate life objects."

According to him, his long and successful career in digital imaging at OmniVision for visible light sensors led him to decide on addressing mass market applications needing invisible LWIR thermal imaging sensors.

"Meridian's patented disruptive sensing technology will usher in countless consumer applications—such as in health, safety, and environmental sectors. Closely coupled with AI, it will enable mass market solutions for safer and better living," says Gadjali.

Award Winner

Meridian developed a unique patented approach of miniaturized thermopile infrared pixel sensors using its advanced proprietary wafer level vacuum package (WLVP). This patented CMOS design and low-cost high-temperature WLVP provides several attributes: low-power operation and stable high ambient temperature without the need for constant mechanical shutter for calibration.

Meridian's CMOS thermal imaging solution, which is low cost and mass producible, are the key factors for adoption into the price sensitive consumer applications, such as smart digital appliances, smartphones, security, people counting with no privacy concerns, and energy reduction devices.

These attributes propelled Meridian's SenXor to the winners list at this year's EE Awards Asia, bagging the Innovation Award (Asia). Now on its third year, EE Awards Asia celebrates the innovation, creativity, and contributions of Asia's engineering community that have made a difference in the way we work, live, and communicate over the past year.

"We are honored to win the Innovation Award at EE Awards Asia 2023," says Gadjali. "It marks an important milestone in our vision and commitment by bringing mass market thermal imaging solutions to enable a safer and better living."

AI to Drive Sensor Systems Innovation

As AI data applications become increasingly important, the future trend is to enable better sensors to acquire and process the needed data, according to Gadjali.

"Currently, we are addressing LWIR thermal imaging technology. However, our technology can be easily adapted to encompass other energy spectrum such as mid-wavelength infrared (MWIR) for the detection of CO, CO₂, and methane, among others," he says.

Gadjali explains that as AI needs data, Meridian's sensor technology adds another modality that can lead to safer and better living.

"Here's a good example: the thermal imager senses the human body of an elderly person, and it transmits the captured data to an AI engine to detect whether the person has fallen," he says. "Other applications for smart appliances could be a microwave or conventional oven, which need thermal imaging sensors to detect the temperature of the food during the cooking process, which can lead to better and tastier food. For the cooktop, not only can the thermal imaging sensor assist the chef, but it can also help prevent kitchen fire when someone forgets to turn off the stove. All these intelligent inferences require AI to work with the data captured by our sensors."

What's Next

It has been a bumpy ride for the global economic recovery amid continued geopolitical issues and inflationary challenges.

"Overall, the economy has been struggling as we emerged from more than three years of pandemic. During that period, a lot of manufacturers were busy expanding their capacity to cope with the major shortage in semiconductors and did not develop new products. However, Meridian continues our R&D by developing our lower-cost second-generation product using the 8" wafer process. The new products are now being designed into smart home appliances, elderly care and baby monitoring, thermal and power monitoring, and in-cabin automotive applications," explains Gadjali.

For its product innovations, the company will continue to expand its market by providing a mix of higher- and lower-resolution products in the short term.

"In the long term, we will continue our R&D efforts to design smaller and better-sensing pixels technologies that can lower the cost and improve the performance of our solutions," says Gadjali. "Currently, we offer a 5,000-pixel resolution product, while our new 20,000- and 2,500-pixel solutions are on the horizon. These new products will address our customers' growing needs for thermal imaging solutions for their new products and markets."

Gadjali says he sees pivotal shifts for the semiconductor sector next year because of the current geopolitical climate and the continuous trend toward localizing supply chains.

"At the forefront of these changes are innovations in high-performance computing (HPC) and AI supply chains to help the growth for semiconductor industries," he says. "These new innovations are excellent opportunities for sensor design companies like Meridian Innovation. After more than seven years of development and evangelizing the use of thermal sensors for the consumer markets, Meridian Innovation finally is at the junction of exponential growth. With the right innovation, technology and products addressing the new mass consumer markets, together with AI, we see the demand for our thermal imaging solutions to increase significantly in the coming months, as Tier 1 brands continually adopt our low-cost CMOS thermal imaging solution for their smart applications."

*EE Awards Asia, organized by AspenCore, publisher of EE Times Taiwan/Asia/India and EDN Taiwan/Asia

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SOURCE EE Times Taiwan