Adaptive adjustment of the operating bias of an imaging system

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9584750-B2
Application number	US-201514829500-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Aug 18, 2015
Priority date	Aug 20, 2014
Publication date	Feb 28, 2017
Grant date	Feb 28, 2017

Abstract

An imaging system includes a shutter, an array of photodetectors, and electronic circuitry associated with the photodetectors to read intensity values from the photodetectors, the electronic circuitry including elements configured to provide an operating bias point of the photodetectors. The imaging system includes components, such as a controller, configured to adaptively adjust the operating bias for the photodetectors wherein the adjustment is based at least in part on intermittent measurement of a flat field image. During use, the imaging system can be configured to perform intermittent adjustments of the operating bias based on changes in photodetector values for intermittently acquired flat field images. Adjustment of the operating bias may provide compensation for drift over time of the photodetectors and/or electronics due to effects including but not limited to temperature changes.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method for adaptive adjustment of operating biases of photodetectors of an imaging system comprising a shutter, an array of photodetectors, and detector electronic circuitry for reading out image data from the array of photodetectors, the method comprising:
acquiring, with the shutter closed to occlude the array of photodetectors, image data from the array of photodetectors during a first time period, the image data comprising an array of pixel values;
adjusting operating bias points for individual pixels, wherein an adjusted operating bias point for an individual pixel is configured to adjust image data acquired with the shutter closed so that a pixel value from the individual pixel is within a threshold range around a data value assigned to a reference bias point;
acquiring, with the shutter open to expose the array of photodetectors, image data of a scene at a time after the first time period, the image data acquired using the adjusted operating bias points;
acquiring, with the shutter closed to occlude the array of photodetectors, image data from the array of photodetectors during a second time period after the first time period, the image data comprising an array of pixel values;
re-adjusting the operating bias points for one or more individual pixels with pixel values outside the threshold range, and not re-adjusting the operating bias points for one or more individual pixels with pixel values not equal to the reference bias point but within the threshold range, wherein a re-adjusted operating bias point for an individual pixel is configured to adjust image data acquired with the shutter closed so that a pixel value from the individual pixel is within the threshold range around the data value assigned to the reference bias point; and
acquiring, with the shutter open to expose the array of photodetectors, image data of a scene at a time later after the second time period, the image data acquired using the re-adjusted operating bias points.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising repeating the steps of:
acquiring image data with the shutter closed;
re-adjusting the operating bias points for individual pixels; and
acquiring image data with the shutter open using re-adjusted operating bias points.

3. The method of claim 1 further comprising converting image data to digital image data.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein adjusting an operating bias point comprises adjusting at least one component in a resistor digital-to-analog converter (“RDAC”) network such that a finest adjustment level corresponds to a change of one least significant bit in the RDAC network.

5. The method of claim 4 , wherein re-adjusting an operating bias point comprises adjusting the RDAC such that image data acquired with the shutter closed approaches the data value assigned to the reference bias point.

6. The method of claim 4 further comprising adjusting the RDAC such that image data acquired with the shutter closed approaches the data value assigned to the reference bias point, wherein image data that is above the threshold range is reduced to be less than the data value assigned to the reference bias point and image data that is below the threshold range is adjusted to be greater than the data value assigned to the reference bias point, such that a pixel value acquired with the adjusted RDAC settings is within one-half of the least significant bit in the RDAC network from the data value assigned to the reference bias point.

7. An imaging system comprising:
an imaging array comprising an infrared focal plane array, the infrared focal plane array comprising an array of microbolometers, each pixel of the focal plane array including a microbolometer photodetector;
a detector circuit comprising:
a positive voltage rail;
a negative voltage rail;
at least one variable resistor network;
an integrator comprising a signal input electrically coupled to an output of a microbolometer, a reference input electrically coupled to a integrator bias voltage source, and an output; and
an analog-to-digital converter electrically coupled to the output of the integrator and configured to output digital data corresponding to an output signal of the integrator;

a shutter configured to occlude the imaging array in a closed position and to expose the imaging array in an open position; and
a system controller configured to adjust the variable resistor network to set an operating bias of the detector circuit using image data acquired when the shutter is in the closed position;
wherein an individual microbolometer is electrically coupled to the positive voltage rail, the negative voltage rail, the at least one variable resistor network, and the integrator,
the system controller is configured to adjust and re-adjust operating biases of one or more individual photodetectors with pixel values outside a targeted threshold that includes a reference bias level so that pixel values are within the targeted threshold, and not to re-adjust operating biases of one or more individual photodetectors with pixel values not equal to the reference bias level but within the targeted threshold, the reference bias level corresponding to a targeted digital output value of an analog to digital conversion of the integrator output value when image data is acquired with the shutter closed.

8. The imaging system of claim 7 , wherein the at least one variable resistor network comprises a resistor digital-to-analog converter (“RDAC”) network such that a finest adjustment level corresponds to a change of one least significant bit in the RDAC network.

9. The imaging system of claim 8 , wherein the system controller is configured to determine initial operating bias points for individual photodetectors by setting each element of the at least one variable resistor network to adjust image data acquired with the shutter closed to be closer to the reference bias level.

10. The imaging system of claim 8 , wherein the system controller is configured to re-adjust the operating bias points by adjusting only the RDAC network to bring the image data acquired with the shutter closed closer to the reference bias level.

11. The imaging system of claim 10 , wherein the system controller is further configured to adjust the RDAC network to bring the image data acquired with the shutter closed for individual pixels closer to the reference bias level, wherein image data that is above a threshold range is reduced to be less than the reference bias level and image data that is below the threshold range is adjusted to be greater than the reference bias level.

12. The imaging system of claim 8 , wherein at a plurality of points in time when the shutter is closed, the system controller is configured to:
acquire multiple frames of image data; and
analyze the acquired frames of image data based on previous RDAC settings and current RDAC settings.

13. The imaging system of claim 12 , wherein the system controller is configured to determine an average of a number frames of image data.

14. The imaging system of claim 7 , wherein the imaging system is a thermal imaging system and image data acquired with the shutter closed comprises a substantially uniform temperature scene at a temperature of the shutter.

15. The imaging system of claim 14 , wherein the imaging system comprises an infrared camera core.

Assignees

• Seek Thermal Inc

Inventors

• Wolfe Jason
• Parrish Willliam J

Classifications

• G01J5/20 Primary

  using resistors, thermistors or semiconductors sensitive to radiation, e.g. photoconductive devices · CPC title

• G01J1/46

  using a capacitor · CPC title

• H04N25/671

  for non-uniformity detection or correction · CPC title

• H04N25/673

  by using reference sources · CPC title

• G01J1/0228

  Control of working procedures; Failure detection; Spectral bandwidth calculation · CPC title