Advanced test equipment for third generation FLIRs

Traditional test equipment for FLIR testing is typically comprised of a blackbody source back irradiating an assortment of stationary discrete etched targets to produce a differential image at the focal plane of a collimator. Even though this basic tester is a time proven tool for testing the performance of scanning systems, it does not adequately address tomorrow's staring array test requirements. Since the object is no longer scanned across all of the detector elements of the FLIR to form the image, the object or FLIR must now be translated to fully test each detector element of a staring system. In addition to the added necessity to stimulate each detector, the system resolution is a function of not only the spatial frequency but also the position and sweep speed of the target. Therefore, an advanced tester is needed to adequately test the next generation of FLIR systems. A revolutionary solution to addressing these evolving test requirements is found in the emerging technology of microresistor array-based infrared scene projection. An infrared scene projection system of this type provides all of the capabilities found in today's conventional infrared tester, plus the capability to move targets at variable rates of motion without the need of moving mechanical devices. The driving requirement for such a device and a description of the tester are provided in the content of this paper.