Uncooled dual-band MWIR/LWIR optical readout imager

Matthew Erdtmann; Lei Zhang; Guanghai Jin

doi:10.1117/12.781886

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16 April 2008 Uncooled dual-band MWIR/LWIR optical readout imager

Matthew Erdtmann, Lei Zhang, Guanghai Jin

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Proceedings Volume 6940, Infrared Technology and Applications XXXIV; 694012 (2008) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.781886
Event: SPIE Defense and Security Symposium, 2008, Orlando, Florida, United States

Abstract

Agiltron has demonstrated an uncooled dual-band MWIR/LWIR imager based on our previously reported photomechanical sensor technology. The readout from two separate MWIR and LWIR photomechanical sensor arrays were fused together, permitting either dual-band, MWIR-only, or LWIR-only operation of the imager. Results of the dual-band imager in response to a wide-dynamic range infrared scene are described. With the dual-band MWIR/LWIR capability, the full dynamic range of the scene was successfully captured, yet good sensitivity was still maintained when imaging near-room temperature objects. Extensive comparative performance analysis was performed for the photomechanical thermal imager and HgCdTe and InSb photon imagers. A noise model for the optical readout photomechanical thermal imager is presented. It is shown that the photomechanical pixel can be engineered to nullify the contribution of shot noise to NETD without affecting the thermal properties of the pixel. In this regime, the performance of the uncooled photomechanical imager will approach that of cooled photon imagers.

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Matthew Erdtmann, Lei Zhang, and Guanghai Jin "Uncooled dual-band MWIR/LWIR optical readout imager", Proc. SPIE 6940, Infrared Technology and Applications XXXIV, 694012 (16 April 2008); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.781886

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