Development of an infrared ultra-compact multichannel camera integrated in a SOFRADIR's detector Dewar cooler assembly

We present a prototype of an infrared cryogenic camera directly integrated inside an off-the-shelf SOFRADIR's Detector Dewar Cooler Assembly (DDCA) and whose field of view is equal to 120°. Based on the co-design principle between optical design and image processing, we have designed a multichannel camera which produces four non-redundant images on a single SCORPIO detector, with 640 × 512 pixels and a pixel pitch of 15 μm. This leads to an ultra-miniaturized optical system with a very low additional optical and mechanical mass to be cooled. By this way, the cool-down time of the camera is comparable to the one of an equivalent DDCA without an imagery function. Indeed, we obtain a cool-down time of 6 minutes with a THALES Cryogenics RM3. With a superresolution algorithm, the four images produced by the camera are combined to process a single full-resolution image with an equivalent sampling pitch equal to 7.5μm. The performances of this camera, assessed by experimental characterizations, are presented.