Company History

How Dexter Research Center Has Evolved and Thrived Through the Years

Dexter Research Center is the global leader in the manufacture of high-quality, high-output Bismuth-Antimony thin film and silicon-based infrared sensing thermopile detectors. This leadership was achieved through collaboration between former defense scientists at Willow Run Labs and Robert “Bob” Toth, Ph.D, a materials and thin film expert who had previously worked for Ford Scientific Labs.

Willow Run Labs, a part of the Engineering Research Institute of the University of Michigan, attracted a cadre of world-renowned researchers and engineers to help design what eventually became known as the U.S. anti-ballistic missile system. Remote sensing then played, and continues to perform, a key role in this ultra-sophisticated defense system.

During the mid-1960s, at the time that Willow Run Labs was perfecting many of the U.S. military weapons systems that proved so successful in the first and second Gulf Wars, sensors were extraordinarily expensive. As work progressed, the potential commercial applications of sensor technology began to be recognized, but high unit costs remained a barrier to technology transfer.

Advanced Technology

Bob Toth’s pioneering work in infrared thermopile detectors utilized evaporating overlapping films of bismuth and antimony to form microscopic thermocouples. Bob proved that his design was more rugged than that of the traditional anodized aluminum thermopile. His work would lead to significant application development of the thermopile for space, industry, and medical applications because of its small critical mass, opening new doors in packaging, system costs, and performance.

Bob’s detector designs offer low mass absorbers that provide time constants that can be as short as 10 milliseconds. Our evaporation technique allows the thermopile to be designed to any size or shape.

Dexter Research Center’s first customers were radiometer and fire sensor manufacturers at Santa Barbara Research Center who supplied Hughes Aircraft. Finding that their applications were greatly advanced by Bob’s technology, the University of Southern California, Santa Barbara and surrounding technology firms have made Santa Barbara a hot-bed of applied science and engineering.

Best-in-Class Sensing Products

From the beginning, under Bob Toth’s leadership, Dexter Research Center focused on collaborating with its customers to design, prove, and build custom detector applications. Today, the company has 31 thermopile products with over 1,000 configurations to date, far more than our competitors. Bob’s sensors now deliver a sensitivity range as low as .005° C and cost a fraction of the original prototype sensors.

Continuing its tradition of collaborating with customers, Dexter has also developed a line of high-performance silicon sensors that offer best-in-class performance at competitive prices.

Today, Bob’s son Rob Toth is President of Dexter Research Center, while Bob remains the hands-on CEO in the lab. Bob’s work has made possible the fortunes of over 100 entrepreneurs. Enterprising leaders in R&D for the military, aerospace, government, and medical research industries, among others, will tell you that if it matters and you want it to work:

“Ask Dexter Research.”

Company History

How Dexter Research Center Has Evolved and Thrived Through the Years

Advanced Technology

Best-in-Class Sensing Products

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