Electronically Stabilized Focal Plane Array System

High spatial resolution imagery produced by electro-optical sensors is difficult to collect from a moving or vibrating platform during the photocharge integration period which blurs the pixel-based image. Random platform vibrations which displace the image by even a half-pixel distance will measurably degrade the resulting imagery. Post-processing techniques are useful, but require significant computational horsepower and require two-dimensional vibration data to be stored with the image data for later spatial correction. Electromechanical means are useful, but high frequency compensation may be difficult to achieve because of mass and vibrational damping effects. Image motion compensation implemented directly on visible or infrared focal plane arrays (FPAs) can be demonstrated by Pacific Advanced Technology (PAT) with existing hardware. ¿Region of Interest¿ (ROI) control signals sent to specially designed FPAs are decoded, with the result that only the information contained within the ROI is multiplexed off of the FPA. This proposed program will develop preliminary designs for a motion stabilization ¿Readout Processing Integrated Circuit¿ (ROPIC) and drive electronics that will adjust the position of the instantaneous ROI. The resulting system will be capable of internal electronic ¿shutter speeds¿ of at least ten times the effective frame rate of the camera. The device could also be configured as a high frame rate tracker.