DESIGN-FEATURES OF AN IR CAMERA BASED ON CCDS WITH PLATINUM SILICIDE FOR DETECTING SMALL DISTANT OBJECTS

This paper discusses the design features of IR television cameras inte nded for the detection of distant point objects acid based on cooled s ilicon IR CCD arrays with platinum silicide Schottky barriers (SE CCDs ). Special attention is paid to measures for improving the frequency-c ontrast characteristic of the camera at high spatial frequencies and f or suppressing instrumental background. Results are shown for a study of the parameters of an experimental IR camera with an SE CCD array in the 1.5-5.5-mu m range. When it operates with a point source of radia tion of the absolute blackbody type with a temperature of 313 K in the wavelength range 3.2-5.4 mu m, a noise-equivalent temperature differe nce (NETD) no greater than 0.2 K is obtained. When it operates on subj ects with low spatial frequency, an NETD less than 0.1 K is attained. (C) 1997 The Optical Society of America.