Determination of FLIR LOS stabilization errors

Howard J. Pinsky
Martin Marietta Electronics, Information
and Missiles Group
P0 Box 628007
Orlando, Florida 32862

ABSTRACT

The increasing use of high performance detectors in long focal length FUR sensors puts
a high demand on stabilization systems. In most FUR designs, the stabilization MTF tends to
be the limiting component and has the greatest effect on MRT and range performance. Efforts
to improve stabilization results in costly hardware solutions. The verification of the operation
of these systems is an important step in the design and development process. This paper details
a method for using FLIR characterization tests to measure stabilization system performance
thereby verifying the design.
1. INTRODUCTION

Modern FLIR sensor systems contain several individual components each of which
exhibits a modulation transfer function (MTF). The system MTF is the product of these
individual MTFs resulting in a single MTF as given by the following equation1'2:

MTF = AfrF x -''DETECTOR X 'PREAMP X MPOSTAMP

x '-"SCAN-JI1TER X M'EMUX X -"-'DIGITAL FILTER

x '"T'DISPLAY X MTFSTABILI74TION (1)

While each of the component MTFs is important, a few of these are more dominant than
others and can strongly influence the overall system MTF. In general, the detector MTF
dominates the system MTF, however, with the improvement of detectors resulting in smaller
more sensitive elements, the emphasis may be shifted toward the stabilization MTF as the
dominant MTF as shown in Figure 1 . Equation (2) describes the MTF due to line of sight (LOS)
stabilization errors caused by a random gaussian LOS variation.

MTF.J. exp[-2(iraf)2] (2)

Where:
= LOS stabilization error (mrad)
f = spatial frequency in object space

The effect of changes in LOS Stabilization can be seen in the FUR range performance
plots shown in Figure 2. As stabilization jitter increases, the FUR range performance quickly
degrades after passing the "knee" of the curve. This curve indicates that for this particular FUR

334 / SPIE Vol. 1488 Infrared Imaging Systems: Design, Analysis, Modeling, and Testing 11(1991) Q-8194-0597-3/91/$4.OO

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 configuration, it is desirable to stabilize the LOS to better than 20 microradians, a task which is
extremely difficult to accomplish in either airborne or ground applications. To aid in the design
of the stabilization system, it would be extremely useful to be able to measure the actual LOS
stabilization error as different parameters in the stabilization feedback loops were changed. To
meet that goal a measurement capability was developed such that any FUR can be tested in real
time and display the effects of stabilization errors.

2. THE MEASUREMENT PROCEDURE

The laboratory test configuration is shown in Figure 3. At the heart of the test system
is an environmental test chamber which has a programmable shaker table. The vibration
spectrum of the test chamber can be programmed to approximate the vibration signature of
aircraft and land based vehicles. The FUR system is mounted on the shaker table in such a way
that the full spectrum of vibration frequencies is coupled to the sensor under test. A differential
temperature target illuminates a narrow slit object which is then projected into the FUR sensor
using a long focal length off-axis collimator.

The RS-170 standardized video from the FUR sensor is digitized by a Tektronix RTD-
710A digitizer which is connected to a desktop PC computer system for data analysis. Several
methods can be employed to measure overall system MTF and specifically stabilization MTF
using the digitized output from the sensor. In the first example shown in Figure 4., the MTF is
developed using a slit object in the collimator. The image produced by the FLIR is the line
spread function and is digitized by the RTD-710A. A computer program takes the digitized
signal composed of raw data and noise and removes any slope errors at the baseline thereby
leveling the signal. The program then applies a Hanning window'4 to the signal. The effect of
the Hanning window, which has a formula as shown in equation (3),

w(n) = 0.5 - 0.5 cos[-!] 0 n (N-i) (3)

is to reduce the noise in the tails of the raw data to zero. This will provide a smooth function
with no abrupt steps at the edges of the sampling region thereby reducing errors in the MTF due
to aliasing. The computer program then averages LSFs over many image samples so that LOS
jitter is accounted for in the position broadening of the LSF curve. Finally, the line spread
function is normalized and the Fourier transform is taken resulting in the MTF.

A second method uses a knife edge target to measure MTF. A diagram of this
measurement procedure is shown in Figure 5. In this example a knife edge target is used to
illuminate the FLIR under test. The digitized signal is summed over several scans to include the
effects of LOS stabilization jitter and to reduce random noise form the detector and electronics.
The jitter broadened signal is differentiated with respect to the spatial dimension to obtain the
line spread function. The slope error or offset is removed and a Hanning window is applied to
the data. The LSF is then normalized and the Fourier transform is taken to produce the MTF.
There are several advantages in using a knife edge target: 1) the target is simpler to construct
than a narrow slit, 2) the range of spatial frequencies does not depend on the focal length of the
target collimator as a slit would, 3) the edge target allows the measurement of noise equivalent
temperature (NETD) data as well as MTF data, and 4) the MTF data does not require a slitwidth
correction . The major drawback is that taking the derivative of noise on the edge data

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 accentuates the noise and could substantially distort the LSF and resultant MTF.

A computer program was written incorporating the algorithms and analysis procedures
outlined above into a menu driven program with a graphics output. While the menu input
allows changing digitizer values and algorithm variables, the output appears as four graphs as
shown in Figure 6. The raw data appears in the upper left which in this example is the digitized
FUR output of a slit target. In the upper right, the successive FUR traces are averaged together
and convolved with a Hanning window to form the LSF. The lower left curve is the Fourier
transform of the LSF or MTF. Finally, the lower right curve is the MRT curve obtained by
dividing the NETD by the MTF and multiplying by a fixed constant of between k = 0.35 and k
= 0.7. The value of the constant is determined by laboratory experiment and is peculiar to each
individual FUR system. In the MTF and MRT windows, the cursor position along the X-axis
is indicated by the number in parentheses. (2.5 cy/mr in these examples). The value of the
function at the cursor is given by the number after the equal sign. The data cursor provides a
very accurate means to track changes in the MTF and MRT on a real time basis. The data can
also be saved to disk for further review or analysis.

3. THE EXPERIMENT AND RESULTS

To test the measurement procedure, an Engineering Test Bed FUR sensor with a
stabilized gimbal was mounted on the vibration platform and a slit object was projected by the
target collimator into the FUR. Measurements of MTF were made both before and during
vibration. The MTF curves with vibration were divided by the baseline non-vibrating MTFs to
isolate the pure vibration MTF curves. These curves were fitted to the gaussian stabilization
MTF described in equation (2) and the standard deviation of the vibration was determined. The
group of curves shown in Figure 6. represent the baseline measurement of a 208 microradian slit
as imaged by the FUR with no vibration. In this example, the MTF at 2.5 cy/mr measured
0.421.

Figure 7. displays the condition when the FUR sensor is being vibrated with a vertical
axis random frequency vibration whose peak power spectral density (typical of an aircraft
environment) is 0.1 G2/Hz at 60 Hz. While the curves look very similar to the baseline case of
Figure 6., the MTF at 2.5 cy/mr has degraded to 0.375. Dividing the vibration + baseline MTF
curve by the baseline MTF curve results in the pure vibration MTF curve as shown in Figure 8.
When producing FUR MTF curves using a finite sized slit it is normal practice to divide the raw
MTF data by the MTF of the slit which is calculated by the equation:

MTF5J = SIN(tdf) / (rrdf) (4)

where d = slitwidth
This step was not required in developing the curves in Figure 8. since the slit MTF
appears in both numerator and denominator. It must be recognized, however, that equation (4)
sets the upper spatial frequency bound since the slitwidth is larger than the detector angular
subtence. Since the slit has a cutoff frequency of 4.71 cy/mr, a frequency of f = 3.85 cy/mr was
used resulting in an MTF of 0.74.

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 The MTF data can now be fitted to the gaussian equation as shown below:

MTFST, - exp[-2(ta f)2 ] (5)

MTFST = exp[-2(3.85 x 7ra )2] 0.74

(6)

aS = I In(0.74) = 0.03208 mrad

I -________
(7)
N 2iv2(3.85)2

Finally, as shown in Figure 9., the MTF data is plotted together with a gaussian curvefit using
a = 32.08 microradians.
4. CONCLUSIONS

The excellent agreement between the measured MTF data and the calculated gaussian
curve with = 32 microradians shows that vibration MTF measurements can be made in real
time using digitized FLIIR line spread function data. It is interesting to note that the stabilized
gimbal system used in this example was designed to give 30 microradian stabilization thus
further proving the methodology.
5. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

The author wishes to thank Mr. Edward DeRouin for his help in developing much of the
computer program and Mr. Charles Read for help with the instrumentation.

6. REFERENCES

I . J. A. Ratches et al, Night Vision Laboratory Static Performance Model for Thermal Viewing Systems,
U.S. Army Electronics Command Research and Development Technical Report ECOM-7043, April
1975.
2. J. M. Lloyd, Thermal Imaging Systems, Plenum Press, New York, 1975.
3. F. J. Harris, "On the Use of Windows for Harmonic Analysis with the Discrete Fourier
Transform," Proceedings of the IEEE, Vol 66, No 1, January 1978, pp. 51-83.
4. J. E. Maisel, "Subtle differences in performance characteristics have major effect on window
selection," Personal Engineering & Instrumentation News, August 1989, pp. 65-68.

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 MTF

5.0 7.5
FREQUENCY (CY/MR)

Figure 1. FLIR Component MTF Functions

i2

: 30

LU
20
I I
I I
I I
I I
i I

I I

I I
I I

I I
I I
I I
I I
I I

I I
I I
I I
I I
I
I II I I I I I
I
I I

2.
I I I I I

ci.g 0.5 LU 1.5 2.5 3.U

RANGE (RELATIVE)
Figure 2. ftIR Range Performance as a Function of Stabilization

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 Off-Axis Parabola
Target CollImator

Differential Temperature
source

Desktop 80386 Computer

Figure 3. Laboratory Test Configuration

WASlit Object Line Spread Function

(Raw Data with Noise)
Hanning Window
Applied
Line Spread Function
(Reduced Noise)

Baseline MTF
Jitter
Fourier Transform

MTF with Jitter

Sum over Multiple Trace Stabilization MTF

Stabilization Jitter Compared to Baseline

Figure 4. MTF Analysis of Slit object

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 Knife Edge Scan LOS Jitter Causes Sum Over Scans
Knife Edge Position Displacement Incorporates Jitter
Object and Reduces Noise

d
dx
Derivative of Knife Line Spread Function Hanning Window
Edge data = LSF Applied

Baseline MTF
No LOS Jitter
Fourier Transform

with Jitter

Line Spread Function Stabilization MTF

(Reduced Noise) Compared to Baseline

Figure 5. MTF Analysis of Knife Edge Object

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 Line Spread Function

Figure 6. System MTF Measurements with No Vibration

Line Spread Function

Figure 7. System MTF Measurements During Vibration

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 Frequency (cy/mr)

Figure 8. Measured MTF

LI.
I-

Frequency (cy/mr)
Figure 9. Vibration MTF - Gaussian Curvefit

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