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On-board non-uniformity correction calibration methods for microbolometer focal plane arrays

  • US 9,167,179 B2
  • Filed: 02/11/2012
  • Issued: 10/20/2015
  • Est. Priority Date: 02/21/2011
  • Status: Active Grant
First Claim
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1. A method of calibrating a microbolometer focal plane array (MFPA) having detector elements and that reside in a thermal camera that has a processing unit that is operably coupled to an external computer and a shutter, comprising:

  • determining, in the processing unit, detector non-uniformity corrections (NUCs) for corresponding ones of the detector elements based on reference voltages from the MFPA;

    applying the detector NUCs to the detector elements as coarse corrections that establish a coarse calibration;

    sending the detector NUCs to the external computer;

    in a first measurement step;

    collecting image data DL1 at a first ambient temperature and image data DH1 at a first calibration source temperature;

    collecting image data DL2 at a second ambient temperature and image data DH2 at a second calibration source temperature; and

    sending image data DL1, DH1, DL2 and DH2 to the external computer;

    calculating, in the external computer, fine corrections based on the collected image data DL1, DH1, DL2 and DH2 and the detector NUCs; and

    sending the fine corrections from the external computer to the processor unit and applying the fine corrections to the detector elements to establish a fine calibration.

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