A low-power, TEC-less, 1280 x 1024, compact SWIR camera with temperature-dependent, non-uniformity corrections

Abstract

Significant research and development efforts are currently underway to produce robust Short Wave Infrared (SWIR) camera systems with low power consumption. Substantial improvements in power can be achieved through the elimination of the thermoelectric cooler (TEC) on the FPA. Removing the TEC from the system introduces temperature as a significant parameter effecting FPA spatial uniformity, effectively requiring more complex temperature dependent non-uniformity image correction algorithms. We present here our latest work in developing a parameterized non-uniformity correction algorithm for a low-power no-TEC camera. The camera used in these experiments is the Goodrich GA1280J-15 high resolution, high sensitivity, InGaAs SWIR camera operating at 30 Hz, and modified to operate without a TEC. The FPA size is 1280 x 1024 pixels, with a 15 mm pitch. Typical power when operating with parameterized non-uniformity corrections consumption is 3 W or less. The camera under test was mounted inside of an environmental chamber and images at varying illumination levels were acquired from -50 to 70 °C with a 10 °C step. Analysis of these images yielded the optimal orders and coefficients for a parameterized non-uniformity corrections model consisting of a sum of polynomials in raw counts, and FPA temperature. The optimized model was determined to be 1st order in counts and 5th order in FPA temperature, with an average R2 between the target counts and corrected counts of 0.999 ± 0.001, and average reduction of spatial noise of 83 ± 7 % across all camera operational modes.© (2012) COPYRIGHT Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE). Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.