Glint Reduction in Staring Focal Plane Array Mid-Wave Thermal Imagers Employing Microscanning

Imaging Sensors and Systems (ISS) manufactures microscanner based Mid Wave Infra-Red (MWIR) thermal imaging systems. MWIR sensors with staring Focal Plane Array (FPA) operating in 3-5 mm are adversely affected by the sun glint in applications where the target must be imaged against a sea-surface background. For this reason ISS has already been working on reducing the sun glint. In this Phase I program, a combination of hardware and software solutions for the glint suppression will be developed and demonstrated. The hardware includes: (a) The microscanner based MWIR thermal imaging system manufactured by ISS, (b) Polarized laser illuminator synchronized with the imaging system microscanner, and (c) Polarizing, spectral band-pass, and temporal filters called Spatio-temporal microscanning technique. The evaluation and demonstration for this Phase I program will also include video processing software for the thermal system. In Initial Phase I program: (1) The concept of an active thermal system will be optimized, (2) Critical components will be fabricated, purchased, and obtained such as the ISS camera Model M320i-3 with microscanner for tests (3) The hardware/software will be assembled for the suppression of the sun glint. This active thermal imaging system concept will be demonstrated in the proposed Option Phase I program.