Three Band Thermal Infrared Detector for CubeSats and UAS

The proposed Phase II prototype will deliver high spatial resolution, wide field of view, high signal to noise performance, and three spectral bands.nbsp; The system includes onboard processing to extract the information of greatest value, orthorectify the imagery, and reduce the size of the data for transmission.nbsp; This sensor system is designed to fit within the size, weight, and power (SWaP) envelopes of typical remote sensing aircraft and six unit CubeSats.nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;The design allows for expansion in a number of areas, most significantly, the optical system supports the option of choosing (during fabrication) specific spectral bands within the spectral range from 3um to 12um.nbsp;TBIRD incorporates a step stare optical design which provides fundamental advantages over current imaging systems including:The combination of a step stare scanning mirror with a focal plane array offers fundamental improvements in spatial resolutionThe high performance of the step stare scanning system combined with current state of the art detectors results in wide area coverage similar to MODIS and with the spatial resolution of ASTERDuring the Phase I we have determined that the proposed step stare system will easily accommodate higher scan rates.nbsp; As a result the TBIRD will be suitable for a wide range of applications and operational concepts, both space based and airborne.Wersquo;ve developed a Forward Motion Compensation mechanism, which is incorporated in the TBIRD lens.nbsp;nbsp; This feature eliminates image smear due to platform motion, greatly enhancing image quality over existing high resolution thermal imagers.We have developed a super resolution feature, not included in the original proposal, which has the potential to improve spatial resolution and subpixel target detection by a factor of 2 or more.nbsp;