A Versatile Hybrid MWIR Scene Projector for Testing of Advanced Focal Plane Arrays

Physical Sciences Inc. (PSI) will develop a versatile next generation high dynamic range (HDR) infrared scene projector (IRSP) that combines a flickerless wide field of view (WFOV) channel with an overlaid foveated high-intensity narrow field of view (NFOV) channel. Both channels employ digital micromirror devices (DMDs) as spatial light modulators with thermal IR and broadband quantum cascade laser illumination sources in WFOV and NFOV channels, respectively. The proposed configuration offers unprecedented dynamic range (32-bits) over a large spatial effective format (~3600 X 3600) at 100 Hz frame rate with high apparent temperature (>3000K).The technology platform is capable of projecting dynamic, high brightness, high contrast, complex scenes onto advanced sensor technologies that include always-integrating, digital-pixel, HDR, coded access optical sensor, and foveated focal plane arrays in hardware-in-the-loop training and testing scenarios.In Phase I, a breadboard IRSP will be developed to validate an analytical model predicting contrast, maximum apparent temperature, FOV, and angular resolution.In parallel, a design for an FPGA-based image conditioning module capable of streaming and conditioning HDR scenes for projection onto a sensor under test will be generated.Requirements and a conceptual design for an advanced prototype IRSP to be developed in Phase II will be generated.