480x384 element InSb detector with digital processor

Abstract

After completing the development of a digital detector with a format of 640x512 elements ("Sebastian"), SCD is now developing a mid format digital detector with 480x384 elements. This detector is based on the same concept as Sebastian, which was introduced last year at the SPIE conference in Orlando. The 480x384 element detector has all the features and performance of Sebastian as then introduced, and in addition exhibits some additional functionality. The format of the 480x384 element detector was chosen in order to maintain the same active area as in a standard format 320x256 element detector of today. Thus with specific system optics, a higher resolution is achieved with our new detector. As a direct consequence, the detection range is increased by 22-35% depending on the target type, when using this detector instead of the conventional 320x256 element detector in a typical system. The 480x384 element detector is designed to be integrated both into imaging systems and into head seekers missile-applications. In this paper we present the concept and the basic structure of the detector, the special operation modes unique to the digital detector, and the results of detection range calculations.