UNCOOLED LWIR DUAL-FUNCTION TEMPORAL / HYPERSPECTRAL IMAGER

The goal of this Phase II effort is to design, fabricate, and characterize a new class of high performance, compact, lightweight, uncooled LWIR hyperspectral imaging sensors enabled by an innovative design form and dispersing element technology. These sensors provide the ability to toggle between temporal full-frame imaging and scanning hyperspectral modes, and are well suited for use in ground-to-ground and uninhabited aerial vehicle (UAV) applications. An alignment and test procedure will be developed for the assembly and integration of the spectrometer and imaging fore-optics sub-system components of the demonstration sensor and an operational testbed assembly complete with GUI software applications will be designed and fabricated to facilitate the collection of temporal and hyperspectral image data. The optical properties of the demonstration system, including radiometric performance, spatial and spectral MTF, smile and keystone distortion, and other system parameters will be measured and evaluated.