VARIABLE SAMPLE RATE FORWARD LOOKING INFRARED (FLIR) CONCEPTURAL DESIGN

AUTOMATIC TARGET RECOGNIZER (ATR) COMPUTERS ARE CAUSING A REVOLUTION IN THE DESIGN OF FORWARD LOOKING INFRARED (FLIR) SENSORS. HISTORICALLY, FLIRS HAVE UNDER-SAMPLED BECAUSE OF THE SMALL NUMBER OF DETECTORS AVAILABLE ON THE FOCAL PLANE ARRAYS IMAGERY. HOWEVER, FPA DETECTOR DENSITIES HAVE IMPROVED AND ATRS ARE SENSITIVE TO ALIASING. AS A RESULT, SAMPLING RATE IS NOW CONSIDERED TO BE A CRITICAL DESIGN PARAMETER. NEW FLIR DESIGN AND PERFORMANCE FIGURES OF MERIT CANNOT BE VERIFIED SINCE ALL EXISTING SENSORS ARE LIMITED TO ONE SAMPLE RATE. IN PHASE I OF THIS EFFORT, AN INNOVATIVE DESIGN OF A VARIABLE SAMPLE RATE LABORATORY FLIR WILL BE DEVELOPED THAT, WHILE NOT PRACTICAL FOR A OPERATIONAL SYSTEM, WILL BE IDEAL FOR THE PROPOSED LABORATORY UNIT. COMBINING A STARTING FPA WITH A STEP-STARE TWO AXIS SCANNER WILL BE STUDIED. THE FLIR WILL GENERATE TV LINE RATES SO THAT THE DATA CAN BE DISPLAYED TO AN OPERATOR WITHOUT IMAGE TEARING ARTIFACTS AND DETECTOR AND APERTURE SIZES WILL BE SELECTED TO PROVIDE ANTI-ALIASING FILTERS. PHASE 2 WILL CONSIST OF THE FINAL DESIGN, FLIR FABRICATION AND THE COLLECTION OF DATA TO VERIFY THE FIGURES OF MERIT.