METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR TEMPERATURE COMPENSATION OF AN UNCOOLED FOCAL PLANE ARRAY

摘要

A temperature dependent focal plane array (20) operates without a temperature stabilization cooler and/or heater over a wide range of ambient temperatures. Gain, offset and/or bias correction tables are provided in a flash memory (46) in memory pages indexed by the measured temperature of the focal plane array (20). The memory stores (46) a calibration database, which is accessed using a logic circuit (64) which generates a memory page address from a digitised temperature measurement of the focal plane array. The calibration database is comprised of an array of bias, gain and offset values for each pixel in the focal plane array (20) for each potential operating temperature over the entire range of potential operating temperatures. The bias, gain and offset data within the database are read out, converted to analog form, and used by analog circuits to correct the focal plane array (20) response.