An approach for the performance analysis of an uncooled infrared bolometer imager

As an approach for analyzing an uncooled infrared bolometer imager, a method is introduced which supposes that a thermal system is built into the infrared radiation detection mechanism. In this analysis, the bi-directional radiation energy flows between two thermal elements are considered and a radiation thermal conductance between them is defined. Based on the values of the radiation thermal conductances and conventional material thermal conductance, an equivalent thermal circuit for a bolometer detector element is extracted. Calculations were carried out using software written in visual C++. The analysis shows a Noise Equivalent Temperature Difference (NETD) of 50 mK is obtained as a typical value, assuming that no additional noise other than temperature fluctuation noise exists, and that the NETD becomes better as the system time constant built into the equivalent thermal circuit increases. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.