A new adaptive non-uniformity correction algorithm of IRFPA and its VLSI architecture design

Abstract

Scene-based adaptive non-uniformity correction (NUC) of Infrared Focal Plane Array (IRFPA) has been a key technology. However, all the scene-based correction methods require that the objects be in the state of motion. Once objects that don't move enough tend to be melt into the background, the target fade-out and ghost artifacts will occur in the corrected image. On the other hand, although some scene-based algorithms eliminate the non-uniformity effectively, the computations are complicated, and so it is difficult to be implemented by VLSI technique. In this work we propose a new adaptive algorithm based on motion information and the steep descent method. The simulation shows that the new algorithm has inhibited target fade-out and eliminated the ghost artifacts effectively. As the proposed algorithm characterized by inherent parallelism, modularity and regularity, we also propose its parallel VLSI architecture and implement it using 0.18μm CMOS technology.