A METHOD FOR PRODUCING HIGH SIGNAL TO NOISE SPECTRAL MEASUREMENTS IN OPTICAL DETECTOR ARRAYS

摘要

A method and apparatus are described for compensation of a dark current pattern in optical detector arrays, and in particular in uncooled linear CCD arrays. This is accomplished by providing a database (46) of dark signal readings unique to a particular detector (36), which can be used to correct a measured signal (40). The database (46) ma comprise dark signal readings for each pixel, taken for a range of temperatures and exposure times, and may be created at the time of manufacture. The detector also includes a means (42) to measure its temperature, so that the appropriate dark signal values can be selected (or calculated via linear interpolation) from the database, and then subtracted from the measured signal.