Modulation transfer function measurement of charge-coupled devices using frequency-variable fringe patterns

Abstract

Although there are various methods to measure the modulation transfer function (MTF) of charge-coupled devices (CCD), the interferometric fringe pattern method has advantages over others, such as canted slit sources, bar targets, knife-edge, laser-speckle patterns, random noise pattern, etc. Our interferometric method is relatively simple and versatile: It requires no critical optics and no focusing or precision alignment, the entry array is tested, the contrast ratio of the test pattern is high enough, the spatial frequency of the fringe pattern can vary continuously. Our method generates the formation of a sinusoidal intensity fringe pattern by the interference of two monochromatic plane waves, and straightforward projects it onto the CCD array under test. The construction of the experimental device is based on the Fresnel Double-Mirror structure. A 2.5 mw He-Ne laser with the wavelength of 632.8 nm is used as the light source, the laser beam is spatially filtered by a 10 μm pinhole and expanded to a diameter of 30 mm, and the resulting wave front is divided by two mirrors, which incline to each other at a small angle, and interfered. One of the mirrors is rotatable to vary the frequency of the pattern. The CCD array is mounted on a stage, which is also rotatable to make that the CCD array takes different angle with the fringe pattern direction, to receive the patterns. With the method we provided, the spatial frequency can be extended to some 2 times the Nyquist frequency of the CCD array to study the aliasing effect. In the Cartesian coordinates, the x- and y- axis MTFs (at angle 0° and 90°) of the CCD array were measured, the other three MTFs (at angle 26.56°, 45° and 63.44°), which nobody has done before, were also tested offering a more comprehensive characterization of the CCD array.