KEYWORDS: Cameras, Avalanche photodetectors, Sensors, Nonuniformity corrections, Commercial off the shelf technology, Signal to noise ratio, Short wave infrared radiation, Light sources and illumination, Pulsed laser operation, Photons
Active imaging techniques can provide increased signal-to-noise ratio over passive imaging approaches, particularly in the reflective infrared bands (NIR, SWIR, and eSWIR) where passive solar illumination is reduced relative to the visible band. However, providing sufficient illuminator power at long range can introduce severe SWaP tradeoffs for system designers, as the strength of the illumination for a resolved laser spot scales proportionally to the inverse square of the illuminator-to-target distance. Active systems must therefore use illuminator photons efficiently. Avalanche photodiodes (APDs) offer high gain in the electronic domain, allowing the detection of a small number of photons by boosting the signal above the floor imposed by read noise. We compare the contrast-to-noise ratio performance of a mercury-cadmium-telluride (MCT) APD camera and a COTS InGaAs SWIR camera with an illuminator at 1.645[um] as a function of illuminator power. Factors affecting performance are discussed.
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