FIXED PATTERN NOISE COMPENSATION TECHNIQUES FOR STARING INFRARED FOCAL PLANES

To utilize the full performance advantages of staring infrared imaging systems currently under development, it is necessary to compensate for the characteristic fixed pattern ″noise″ which is present at the output from these infrared focal planes. Since many of the applications for staring sensor systems require low power dissipation configurations, it is necessary to develop automatic nonuniformity compensation electronics which have much lower power dissipation requirements than conventional digital compensation techniques. The sources of the nonuniformities and the typical characteristics of elevated temperature staring arrays are discussed. An analysis is given which shows how detector/charge-coupled device electrical coupling techniques influence the compensation implementation. A review of circuit configurations for the compensation function is given which shows that low power dissipation circuitry can be developed which meets the performance power dissipation requirements.