STARING FOCAL PLANE SENSOR SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR IMAGING LARGE DYNAMIC RANGE SCENES

摘要

A focal plane staring sensor is provided that includes an M×N sensor, where M is a number of rows of sensor pixels in the sensor and N is a number of columns of sensor pixels in the sensor, where M and N are integers greater than one. A control circuit samples in each sensor pixel value for each sensor pixel of the M×N sensor at a plurality of different integration times corresponding to an amount of time that a photonic charge can be acquired in each sensor pixel of the M×N sensor, wherein the control circuit selects in each sensor pixel one sample from a set of samples to generate a scaled value to facilitate an equalization of a signal to noise ratio between the sensor pixels.

主权项

1. A focal plane staring sensor comprising:
an M×N sensor, where M is a number of rows of sensor pixels in the sensor and N is a number of columns of sensor pixels in the sensor, where M and N are integers greater than one, wherein the M×N sensor employs at least two integration wells to acquire photonic charge for each sensor pixel for a present frame and to store photonic charge for each sensor pixel from a previous frame; and a control circuit that samples a sensor pixel value for each sensor pixel of the M×N sensor at a plurality of different integration times corresponding to an amount of time that the photonic charge can be acquired in each sensor pixel of the M×N sensor, wherein the control circuit selects one sample from a set of samples to generate a scaled value to facilitate an equalization of a signal to noise ratio between the sensor pixels, wherein the control circuit switches between the at least two integration wells of the M×N sensor to acquire photonic charge for the present frame in one of the at least two integration wells and to enable readout of the stored photonic charge from the previous frame from the other of the at least two integration wells.