The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Nov. 04, 2003
Filed:
Jan. 18, 2002
David J. Gulbransen, Santa Barbara, CA (US);
Raytheon Company, Lexington, MA (US);
Abstract
In a first aspect of these teachings there is provided a radiation sensor that includes sensor optics having an entrance aperture and a two dimensional array of unit cells ( ) spaced away from the aperture. Each unit cell includes a radiation detector (D ) having an output coupled to an input of a gain element, and each gain element is constructed so as to have at least one component with a value selected to set the gain of the gain element to a value that is a function of the unit cell's location along an x-axis and along a y-axis within the two dimensional array. In this manner a compensation is made for a variation of scene illumination across the two dimensional array, where the variation in scene illumination results from a relative intensity of the energy impinging on a unit area of the two dimensional array that varies, for example, by the fourth power of cosine &thgr;, where &thgr; is an angle referenced to an optical axis of the radiation sensor. In a further aspect the radiation sensor includes a plurality of column readout circuits individual ones of which are switchably coupled to individual ones of the unit cells of one of the columns of unit cells. Each of the column readout circuits is constructed to have a first stage having a gain element with a-least one component that has a value selected to set the gain of the gain element to a value that is a function of the location of the column within the two dimensional array, and is further constructed to include a second stage having an input coupled to the first stage. The second stage includes a gain element having a gain that is varied as a function of a location within the two dimensional array of a row of unit cells that is being readout. In this case a combination of the gain of the first stage and the gain of the second stage compensates for a variation of scene illumination across the two dimensional array, where the variation in scene illumination results from the relative intensity of the energy impinging on the unit area of the two dimensional array that varies by the fourth power of cosine &thgr;.