Determining the responsivity of microbolometer FPA using variable optical aperture stop

Contemporary infrared detector arrays suffers from technological imprecision which causes that the response to uniform radiation results in nonuniform image with superimposed fixed pattern noise (FPN). In order to compensate this noise there is a need to evaluate detectors characteristics like responsivity and offset of every detector in array. In article the method of determining the responsivity of detectors in a microbolometer array is described. In the method geometrical and optical parameters of the detector array and the measurement system are taken into account. A special test bench was constructed and is consisting of: two precise surface black bodies, aperture limiter, an electronic interface for data acquisition and software for measurement and correction of results with optical parameters of the measuring stand taken into account. Constructed aperture limiter enables evaluation of optical paths in measurement stand with equivalent relative aperture F# from 0.5 to 16.1 In order to evaluate the impact of optical path to radiation distribution in the measurement system, special radiation model was elaborated and evaluated in Zemax software. Incident radiation intensity distribution on the detector surface was calculated using Monte-Carlo method for various parameters of the optical path in the measurement system. Calculated radiation maps were used to compensate radiation intensity nonuniformity of optical measurement system giving more precise responsivity evaluation of detector array parameters. The obtained values of voltage responsivity of the detectors in the array, can be used in algorithms like nonuniformity correction and radiometric calibration of the infrared camera. In article results of responsivity evaluation is presented for microbolometer infrared arrays from ULIS company (France).