Fiber Optic Snapshot Hyperspectral Imager

OPTRA is developing a snapshot hyperspectral imager (HSI) employing a fiber optic bundle and dispersive spectrometer. The fiber optic bundle converts a broadband spatial image to an array of fiber columns which serve as multiple entrance slits to a prism spectrometer. The dispersed spatially resolved spectra are then sampled by a two-dimensional focal plane array (FPA) at a greater than 30 Hz update rate, thereby qualifying the system as snapshot. Unlike snapshot HSI systems based on computed tomography or coded apertures, our approach requires only the remapping of the FPA frame into hyperspectral cubes rather than a complex reconstruction. Our system has high radiometric efficiency and throughput supporting sufficient signal to noise for hyperspectral imaging measurements made over very short integration times (< 33 ms). The overall approach is compact, low cost, and contains no moving parts, making it ideal for unmanned airborne surveillance. In this paper we present a preliminary design for the fiber optic snapshot HSI system.