Design and characterization of thin multiple aperture infrared cameras

Abstract

We describe a multiple-aperture long-wave infrared camera built on an uncooled microbolometer array with the objective of decreasing camera thickness. The 5 mm thick optical system is an f/1.2 design with a 6.15 mm effective focal length. An integrated image is formed from the subapertures using correlation-based registration and a least gradient reconstruction algorithm. We measure a 131 mK NETD. The system's spatial frequency is analyzed with 4 bar targets. With proper calibration, our multichannel interpolation results recover contrast for targets at frequencies beyond the aliasing limit of the individual subimages.