Intevac

Logo of Intevac, Inc.

Intevac Photonics, a subsidiary of EOTECH, is a manufacturer of night vision sensors and devices based in Santa Clara, CA, U.S.A.

History

Varian Associates Inc. was founded in 1948. It produced vacuum tubes which could amplify electromagnetic waves at microwave frequencies, and other electromagnetic equipment.

It produced image intensifier tubes for the U.S. military as part of Omni II (and possibly both earlier and later) contracts.

In 1991, the spinoff Intevac, Inc. was founded.

Parked AH-64 Apache attack helicopter, showing the sensor array that includes EBAPS sensors.

In 2013, the U.S. awarded a contract to deliver Pilot Night Vision Sensors (PNVS) for the Apache helicopter to Intevac Photonics, using their patented EBAPS sensors.

The Intevac Photonics subsidiary was sold to EOTECH in December 2021.

The contract to produce the Modernized Pilot Night Vision Sensor (M-PNVS) was awarded to Intevac Photonics in October 2021.

EBAPS

EBAPS, short for Electron Bombarded Active Pixel Sensor, is a registered trademark for a patented technology by Intevac.

EBAPS sensors are digital night vision sensors that surpass the performance of analog image intensifiers.

An EBAPS sensor consists of a GaAs photocathode combined with a CMOS Active Pixel Sensor (APS) using the Electron Bombarded Semiconductor (EBS) gain process, which requires no MCP, achieving extremely low noise.