The Boeing Company

Hughes Aircraft Company

Anthony J Kay

Alan Frank Stewart

Andrea Koumvakalis

Louis K Zeldin

Gary M Lindgren

Joseph A Spagnolia

Described herein is a system for processing a workpiece that includes a plurality of lasers that each produces a laser beam pulse. The system also includes a laser control module that sequences temporal characteristics of the laser beam pulses. Additionally, the system includes a laser beam compensation module that shapes a near field intensity profile of at least one of the laser beam pulses and adjusts a path length of at least one of the laser beam pulses. The system also includes at least one laser beam position element that combines the laser beam pulses to produce a combined laser beam pulse at a surface of the workpiece.

Multiple laser beam processing

A method and apparatus for non-uniformity compensation for infrared focal plane arrays in an infrared imaging device (10) including a calibration operation and a correction operation. The calibration operation measures the response (24) generated by the detector elements (14) in the focal plane array (16) to a wide range of known signal flux levels of infrared radiation (22) produced by a uniform black body under controlled conditions. The responses (24) are then stored as a digital video signal (27) in a look-up table memory (38). The correction operation achieves the near real-time compensation of a second response of the detector element (14) to the signal flux level of infrared radiation (22) produced by objects in the field of view surveyed by the imaging device (10) by comparing the second response to the stored digital video signals (27) and interpolates the second response to a corrected digital video output signal (31).

Wide dynamic range non-uniformity compensation for infrared focal plane

Growing community of inventors

Moorpark, CA, United States of America

Anthony J Kay