An engineer's approach to system performance

Gerald C. Holst

doi:10.1117/12.724481

30 April 2007 An engineer's approach to system performance

Gerald C. Holst

Proceedings Volume 6543, Infrared Imaging Systems: Design, Analysis, Modeling, and Testing XVIII; 65430A (2007) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.724481
Event: Defense and Security Symposium, 2007, Orlando, Florida, United States

Abstract

A simplified approach to target acquisition is presented which combines the optics performance (often specified by the Airy disk size) with the detector size. The variable is Fλ/d where F is the focal ratio, λ is the wavelength, and d is the detector size. The simplified approach allows plotting range as a function of aperture diameter, focal length, wavelength, detector size, field-of-view, or noise. Assuming a 100% fill factor, no aliasing occurs when Fλ/d ⩾ 2. This suggests that the sampling theorem plays an important role in target detection. However, sampling artifacts are quite acceptable. Since real targets are aperiodic, relating the number of detectors to the sampling theorem should be avoided. Likewise, the Airy disk size can be related to the detector size (Fλ/d) but trying to decide the required number of samples across the Airy disk as a design criterion should be avoided.

Citation Download Citation

Gerald C. Holst "An engineer's approach to system performance", Proc. SPIE 6543, Infrared Imaging Systems: Design, Analysis, Modeling, and Testing XVIII, 65430A (30 April 2007); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.724481

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