High speed short wave infrared (SWIR) imaging and range gating cameras

Malchow, Douglas S.; Battaglia, Jesse; Brubaker, R. M.; Ettenberg, M.

doi:10.1117/12.721747

Cited by 35 publications

(21 citation statements)

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“…Mikro-Tasarim also offers standard ROICs for uncooled microbolometer FPAs with resistive pixel arrays, which are fabricated monolithically at wafer level using MEMS based surface micro-machining techniques [3]. SWIR FPAs using InGaAs detector arrays gained considerable attention over the last years due to unique advantages of both SWIR optical band and mature InGaAs FPA technology [4][5][6][7][8]. It is relatively easier for the viewers to understand SWIR images as they look similar to the visible images, since both type of images are formed by capturing the reflected light from the ambient rather than the radiated light common for MWIR and LWIR bands.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…It is relatively easier for the viewers to understand SWIR images as they look similar to the visible images, since both type of images are formed by capturing the reflected light from the ambient rather than the radiated light common for MWIR and LWIR bands. In addition, SWIR light can pass through regular glass, allowing the use of lower cost optics [5]. Furthermore, the dark current values in the InGaAs FPAs have been decreased considerably over the last years, which allows building compact and low-power uncooled SWIR cameras [6].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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A miniature VGA SWIR camera using MT6415CA ROIC

Eminoglu¹,

Yilmaz²,

Kocak³

2014

SPIE Proceedings

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This paper reports the development of a new miniature VGA SWIR camera called NanoCAM-6415, which is developed to demonstrate the key features of the MT6415CA ROIC such as high integration level, low-noise, and low-power in a small volume. The NanoCAM-6415 uses an InGaAs Focal Plane Array (FPA) with a format of 640 × 512 and pixel pitch of 15 µm built using MT6415CA ROIC. MT6415CA is a low-noise CTIA ROIC, which has a system-on-chip architecture, allows generation of all the required timing and biases on-chip in the ROIC without requiring any external components or inputs, thus enabling the development of compact and low-noise SWIR cameras, with reduced size, weight, and power (SWaP). NanoCAM-6415 camera supports snapshot operation using Integrate-Then-Read (ITR) and Integrate-While-Read (IWR) modes. The camera has three gain settings enabled by the ROIC through programmable Full-Well-Capacity (FWC) values of 10.000 e-, 20.000 e-, and 350.000 e-in the very high gain (VHG), high-gain (HG), and low-gain (LG) modes, respectively. The camera has an input referred noise level of 10 e-rms in the VHG mode at 1 ms integration time, suitable for low-noise SWIR imaging applications. In order to reduce the size and power of the camera, only 2 outputs out of 8 of the ROIC are connected to the external Analog-to-Digital Converters (ADCs) in the camera electronics, providing a maximum frame rate of 50 fps through a 26-pin SDR type Camera Link connector. NanoCAM-6415 SWIR camera without the optics measures 32 mm × 32 mm × 35 mm, weighs 45gr, and dissipates less than 1.8 W using a 5 V supply. These results show that MT6415CA ROIC can successfully be used to develop cameras for SWIR imaging applications where SWaP is a concern. Mikro-Tasarim has also developed new imaging software to demonstrate the functionality of this miniature VGA camera. Mikro-Tasarim provides tested ROIC wafers and also offers compact and easy-to-use test electronics, demo cameras, and hardware/software development kits for its ROIC customers to shorten their FPA and camera development cycles.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A miniature VGA SWIR camera using MT6415CA ROIC

Eminoglu¹,

Yilmaz²,

Kocak³

2014

SPIE Proceedings

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“…1 In this paper, SWIR is defined as the wavelength range of 1.1 μm to 2.5 μm, 2 a range with decent atmospheric transmittance because of reduced scattering effects. On account of this property, many institutions started to research SWIR imaging performance, such as the US Army, 3 the US Navy, 4 Goodrich Corp., 5,6 Litton Itek Optics, 2 Sarnoff, 7 Raytheon, 8 and Carl Zeiss. 9 The results showed that the image quality of SWIR is significantly higher than that of VNIR (0.4 μm to 1.1 μm) at long distance and under low visibility conditions; that is to say, SWIR could realize a longer observation range.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Therefore the imaging quality relies on atmospheric transmittance to a great extent. In previous research, [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9] the transmittance difference between VNIR and SWIR bands were generally discussed and the experiments involving panchromatic imaging at long distance or under hazy weather condition were discussed. In this paper, atmospheric influences were added to the calculation of image quality, and an signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) model of VNIR and SWIR, including atmospheric influences, is presented.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Study on shortwave infrared long-distance imaging performance based on multiband imaging experiments

et al. 2013

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Abstract. Balloon-borne or ground-based high resolution long range observation has extensive applications in border monitoring and area surveillance. Performance of long-distance oblique or horizontal imaging systems is closely related to the atmospheric transmittance of the observing spectral band. Compared with visible and near infrared, the shortwave infrared (SWIR) band benefits from less scattering effects, which enables it to provide better quality images under harsh atmospheric conditions. We present a signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) model including atmospheric influences. Based on the model, image SNR was calculated in the spectral range of 0.4 μm to 2.5 μm. In order to validate the imaging performance model of SWIR, a multi-band camera was designed and spectral imaging experiments were conducted. The results clearly demonstrated the advantage of SWIR imaging. The experiments show that the contrast and SNR of SWIR images reduced insignificantly for long distances and under low visibility conditions. This advantage makes SWIR multiband cameras suitable for long-distance remote sensing and for observing through haze. © The Authors. Published by SPIE under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License. Distribution or reproduction of this work in whole or in part requires full attribution of the original publication, including its DOI.

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“…In Laux and Chen (2014), a flash LiDAR system is demonstrated to be robust to dust, fog, rain, smoke and direct sunlight. Both flash LiDAR systems use a method called range-gating on the return signal to image past obstruction (Malchow et al, 2007). Dust penetrating LiDAR is a relatively recent development, is consequently expensive, and is yet to find wide application although it shows great promise.…”

Section: The Processing Of Return Signals Is Critical But Not Fundamementioning

confidence: 99%

Determining and verifying object pose from LiDAR measurements to support the perception needs of an autonomous excavator

Phillips¹

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This thesis is a study of how light detection and ranging, also known as LiDAR, can be used to meet perception requirements for field robot applications.LiDAR works by having an emitter produce a pulse of light along a known spatial direction. The distance or range to the world along that direction is determined by measuring the time it takes for reflections of the emitted light to be received at a collector. When this is done over multiple spatial directions, a cloud of points is produced that represent a sampling of the world. LiDAR is a mature technology and commercially available sensors are capable of producing point-clouds comprising up to 65,000 points over 360 degree fields of view, that are updated every 50 ms.This thesis is about how an autonomous machine can interpret meaning from these point-clouds in situations where the environment is complex and dynamic, where there is interaction with other agents leading to occlusion and where there is significant dust in the atmosphere.These conditions are systemic to open-cut mining environments, the domain where this thesis draws its motivation. In particular, the thesis uses as its primary example, the perception requirements for automation of a class of large mining excavators known as electric mining shovels. The work is specifically concerned with the problems of using point-clouds from machine mounted sensors to inform and verify knowledge of object position and orientation in the surrounds of these machines, for instance, the trucks being loaded.LiDAR is affected by dust and some see this a fatal flaw for mining robotics. The work starts with an exploration of the behaviour of a commercial LiDAR sensor in the presence of dust and finds that measurements are systematic and predictable. LiDAR sensors are found to exhibit four behaviours and it is shown how these behaviours can be understood from physics-based arguments. Several conclusions emerge, most notably where LiDAR measures dust, it does so to the leading edge of a dust-cloud rather than, say, as a random point within the cloud. This provides powerful insights into how better to use measurements from LiDAR when dust is present, and in particular suggests that dust can be treated like other forms of occlusion.A problem that must be solved to use LiDAR for machine perception is to establish from where each sensor views the world. This is sometimes called sensor registration and it amounts to finding where a sensor is positioned and how it is orientated. This is typically done by placing markers at known locations and computing the sensor registration from where they appear in the sensor data. For mining robot applications, the use of standard marker or artificial-feature-based approaches is infeasible. The thesis develops a method for sensor registration that overcomes this concern by utilizing the geometric structure of the terrain surrounding the autonomous vehicle platform. The method determines the i information content of registration parameters in measurements of the terrain, and update...

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High speed short wave infrared (SWIR) imaging and range gating cameras

Cited by 35 publications

References 0 publications

A miniature VGA SWIR camera using MT6415CA ROIC

A miniature VGA SWIR camera using MT6415CA ROIC

Study on shortwave infrared long-distance imaging performance based on multiband imaging experiments

Determining and verifying object pose from LiDAR measurements to support the perception needs of an autonomous excavator

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