RADIOMETER DESIGN AND ANALYSIS OF THE BASELINE FUNCTIONALITIES

Cyril Otieno1a, D. Fernando 1b, and Bonnie Tseng 1c

a
Rochester Institute of Technology, Chester F. Carlson Center for Imaging Science Rochester,
NY 14623 USA
ABSTRACT
Radiometry is the science of characterizing or measuring of electromagnetic energy that is present
or associated with a given location in a particular direction. It involves the measurement and
quantification of radiant flux. The instrument designed to quantify flux is a radiometer.
Radiometers have evolved in the field of physics, remote sensing, engineering and vision. In this
report, a radiometer is designed using a fiber optic light source, a planar diffusion type silicon
photodiodes detector, neural density filter and 741 OP-AMP. It was used to the baseline
functionalities; linearity, gain analysis, inverse square law and dark current analysis.

Keywords: Radiometer, Neutral-density, Inverse Square Law, Dark current, Operational amplifier,
Irradiance.
1. INTRODUCTION
Radiometer is instrument designed to measure or characterize radiant flux, the rate of change of
radiant energy from one region to another by radiation field [1]. It was invented by Sir William
Crooke in early1870’s to measure the intensity of radiant energy. Crooke’s radiometer consisted
of a partial vacuum glass and a rotor with four vertical arms two polished surfaces and the other
blackened mounted on a vane [2]. The light strikes the polished surface, most of it is reflected and
on the other side, most of the light was absorbed. The absorbed light increases the surface
temperature causing thermal creeping of the air near the blackened surface which exerts pressure
on the rotor to move. Technological advancements have improved the nature and quality of
radiometer from Crooke’s to modern radiometers that differ in their method of measurement or
detection, such as microwave radiometers, photothermal radiometers [3]. Radiometers has
applications as sensing methods in cognitive systems, computer vision, and pyrometers [4].
This paper reports a construction of a simple radiometer and analysis of its baseline functionalities
including gain analysis, linearity analysis, and the inverse square law. Major parts of the
radiometer included a fiber optic light source, a planar diffusion type silicon photodiodes detector,
neural density filter and 741 OP-AMP. Light incident to the silicon photodiode causes a charge
build up between the N-P junctions [5]. The detector translate light energy into an electrical current
that has linear relationship to the corresponding incident light.
The radiometer was used to verify the inverse square law of radiometry which relates the distance
and radiance of a point source.
 Figure 1: Schematic representation of a point source of light.

Two similar detector of area 𝐴1 and 𝐴2 at distances d1 and d2 respectively from a point source of
light.
The flux to each detector determined by,
d1 ∅ = E1 dA1

𝑑2 ∅ = 𝐸2 𝑑𝐴2
Suppose 𝑑1 ∅ = 𝑑2 ∅
𝐸1 𝑑𝐴1 = 𝐸2 𝑑𝐴2
𝑑22
𝐸1 = 𝐸1
𝑑12
The intensity of a radiation of a surface area is inversely proportion to the square of the distance.
The law is used in determining falloff in irradiance for man infinite line source. Planar diffusion
type silicon photodiodes were used as the detector. Silicon cells effectively operates at a linear
dynamic range. It is because of this quality that they are used by NIST as transfer standards.
Neutral-density (ND) filter decreases the intensity of the incoming light evenly in all wavelengths
[6]. ND relates optical density and transmission according to the equation:
𝑂𝐷 = − log 𝑏 τ
The spectral responsivity of a detector is thus equal to the product of the filter transmission and
the sensor’s responsivity.

2. PROCEDURE

i. Building a Radiometer
The radiometer system comprised of LM741 OP-AMP, a planar silicon (Si) photodiode connected
via a BNC cable, a 9-volt battery, a 5-position DIP switch and a series of feedback resistors. The
whole system was assembled on breadboard in zero-bias mode.
 Figure 2: Radiometer (a) circuit (b) Breadboard layout (c) Circuit design on Tinkercad
The amplifier was connected to the photodiodes. The series resistor network connection is
responsible for a large range of gain, this corresponds to high gains for low light levels and low
gains for high light levels. The output voltage was directly determined from the digital multi-meter.
ii. Gain, Linearity analysis and the Inverse square law
The radiometer assembly was set up on the lens bench with a constant light source incident on it
followed by recording the output voltage for each of the five feedback resistors.
A gain resistor of 100k and ND filters were used to investigate linearity. The light level was
adjusted to output voltage of 5v and different ND filter was set to cover the entire area of the
detector in order to filter out light from external sources. The corresponding outputs were directly
determined from the digital multi-meter. The process was repeated for a combination of two ND
filters.
To verify the inverse square law, the fiber optics was placed on the edge of the bench with the
radiometer on the other end in order to emulate appoint source and stray light eliminated by
accurately aligning the fiber optics with the center of the detector. The dimeter of the fiber optic
was determined in order and used in determining the minimum distance (𝑑𝑖𝑠𝑡𝑚𝑖𝑛 ) of the detector
which was set at factor of 10 the diameter.
Stating from the minimum distance predetermined, the detector distance was increased by an
interval of 1cm to a maximum distance of (𝑑𝑖𝑠𝑡𝑚𝑖𝑛 + 20𝑐𝑚). Corresponding output voltages was
recorded with a single fixed gain set at 1k Ω.
 3. DISCUSSION
a) Gain analysis
The relationship between the output voltage, the photodiode current and the feedback resistors was
follow the ohms law.
𝑉𝑜𝑢𝑡 = 𝐼𝑃𝐷 𝑅𝑓
Table 1

Resistor value Measured R value 𝐕𝐨𝐮𝐭 [𝐕𝐨𝐥𝐭𝐬] 𝐢𝐩𝐝 [µ𝐀]

(Ω) (Ω)

1kΩ 9.95x102 0.025 25.125

10kΩ 9.72x104 0.241 2.479
100kΩ 9.86x106 2.438 0.247
1MΩ 9.96x108 8.360 8.479x10−3
10MΩ 9.97x1010 8.400 8.425x10−5
The current generated from the photodiode is inversely proportional to the feedback resistance.

b) Linearity analysis
Table 2

ND filter label ND Calibrated 𝐕𝐨𝐮𝐭 [𝐕𝐨𝐥𝐭𝐬] 𝟏𝟎(−𝐍𝐃𝐜𝐚𝐥𝐢𝐛𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐝)

No filter = 0 No filter = 0
1 0.1 3.782 0.794
2 0.21 3.117 0.617
4 0.38 2.03 0.417
7 0.69 1.05 0.204
1&2 2.53 0.489
1&4 1.68 0.331
1&7 0.87 0.162
2&4 1.32 0.257
2&7 0.69 0.125
4&7 0.45 0.085

Since the spectral responsivity of a detector is thus equal to the product of the filter transmission
and the sensor’s responsivity, therefore, ideal filter transmission can be determined having the
knowledge of the responsivity.
 Figure 3: Results for the linearity analysis

The bandwidth of the filter decrease with the thickness. Thus by varying the spectral responsivity
of the detector can be modified to a specified function by varying the filter thickness.

c) The Dark current

Table 3

Resistor Measured R value (Ω) 𝐕𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐱𝟏𝟎𝟑 (𝐦𝐕) i-dark (𝐀)

10 MΩ 9.97X1010 0.311 3.10X1010
1 MΩ 9.96X108 0.031 3.08x107
100kΩ 9.86X106 0.004 3.94x104
10 kΩ 9.72X104 0.001 97.20
1 kΩ 9.95X102 0.001 0.995

The output voltage varies linearly with the dark current, this is due to the linear response of the
photodetector with variation of light intensity. The output voltage is greater for a high light
intensity. The deviation of the obtained results may have arisen from stray light for external sources.
The room was not totally dark.

Figure 4: Results for the dark current analysis

 d) Inverse square law
The inverse square law relates irradiance of a point source and distance between the source and
the detector.
Table 4

Reading Number Total Distance from the source (cm) Measured Voltage (V)
0 6 0.359
1 7 0.270
2 8 0.210
3 9 0.168
4 10 0.137
5 11 0.114
6 12 0.097
7 13 0.083
8 14 0.073
9 15 0.064
10 16 0.056
11 17 0.050
12 18 0.045
13 19 0.041
14 20 0.037
15 21 0.034
16 22 0.031
17 23 0.028
18 24 0.026
19 25 0.024
20 26 0.023

The output voltage varies inversely with the distance. The result relates the inverse square law that
relates the irradiance and the distance between the point source and the detector.

Figure 5: Results for the inverse square law

 4. CONCLUSION
The designed radiometer effectively demonstrated the baseline functionalities of radiometry. The
inverse square law was accurately verified. The output voltage was found to be inversely
proportional to the distance between the optical light source and distance from the detector. The
dark current, gain analysis and linearity analysis were effectively demonstrated. However, the
result had some deviations due to stray light, heating up of circuit components and partially
‘contaminated’ filters. More accurate results will be achieved with the experiment carried out in a
totally dark room.
APPENDIX
Matlab code for analysis
% VOLTAGE AGAINST CURRENT
figure
vout=[311,31,4,1,1];
i_pd=[(3.1*10^10),(3.08*10^7),(3.94*10^),(8.479*10^-3),(8.425*10^-5)];
plot(i_pd,vout)
grid on
xlabel('Current (A)')
ylabel('Voltage (mV)')
title('Voltage against current')

% LINEARITY ANALYSIS
figure
v_out=[3.782,3.117,2.03,1.05,2.53,1.68,0.87,1.32,0.69,0.45];
ND_value=[0.794,0.617,0.417,0.204,0.489,0.331,0.162,0.257,0.125,0.085];
p=polyfit(ND_value,v_out,1);
px=[min(ND_value) max(ND_value)];
py=polyval(p,px);
scatter(ND_value,v_out,'Filled')
grid on
hold on
plot(px,py,'LineWidth',2);
xlabel('10^{-ND_{calibrated}}')
ylabel('V_o_u_t (Volts)')
title('Linearity analysis')
mdl = fitlm(ND_value,v_out);
Rsquared=mdl.Rsquared.Ordinary

% INVERSE SQUARE LAW

figure
measured_voltage=[0.359,0.270,0.210,0.168,0.137,0.114,...
0.097,0.083,0.073,0.064,0.056,0.050,0.045,0.041,...
0.037,0.034,0.031,0.028,0.026,0.024,0.023];
distance=[6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18,19,20,21,...
22,23,24,25,26];
p=polyfit(distance,measured_voltage,1);
px=[min(distance) max(distance)];
py=polyval(p,px);
scatter(distance,measured_voltage,'Filled')
grid on
hold on
plot(px,py,'LineWidth',2);
title('Inverse square law')
xlabel('Distance (cm)')
ylabel('Voltage (v)')
mdl = fitlm(distance,measured_voltage);
Rsquared=mdl.Rsquared.Ordinary
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