Real-time infrared test set: system design and development

During the past several years, the technology for designing and fabricating thermal pixel arrays (TPAs) using silicon micromachined CMOS devices has been developed adequately to support the development of a real-time infrared test set (RTIR) for sensors and seekers. The TPA is a custom application-specific integrated circuit device that is fabricated using a low-cost commercial CMOS process. The system architecture and development of the initial RTIR Test Set is described. The RTIR is a compact, self-contained test instrument that is intended for test and evaluation of infrared systems in the field. In addition to the TPA, the RTIR contains projection optics and electronics which drive the TPA, provide TPA nonuniformity compensation, data translation, data transformation, and user interface. The RTIR can display internal test patterns (static and dynamic), external digital video data, and NTSC video. The initial RTIR unit incorporates a 64 X 64 TPA to provide flickerless infrared scenes at 30 frames per second. Additional TPAs are under development with formats of 128 X 128, 256 X 256, and 512 X 512 pixels.© (1997) COPYRIGHT SPIE--The International Society for Optical Engineering. Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.