Thermal Imaging Camera Technology - a guide by Fraser

[Fraser]

I have written a short thermal imaging camera technology guide that I thought may be of interest to those new to the world of thermal imaging.

It is a work in progress and I may add to it if enough interest is shown in such a document existing on this forum.

Fraser

Change record

V1.00 Initial release  28/4/16 (MyRef10)
V1.01 Typo corrections 28/4/16

[tomas123]

Thank you for sharing your knowledge!

you wrote about the "new" Silicon optics of the Flir Lepton 3 sensors and a google search confirm this
http://www.i-micronews.com/images/Flyers/Imaging/FLIR_One_2nd_Generation_LEPTON_3_February_2016_Flyer.pdf

The lenses are still wafer-level silicon optics but area has been enhanced thanks to hexagonal shapes compared to square shapes previously.

You can extend your Focal Plane Array (FPA) segment about the trend to minimize the pixel size to 10um.
(the long wave lenght limits the trends ;-) )


a note about the Flir sensors:

In the paper above, the Lepton 3 sensor is labelled as ISC1403L

Flir Exx 320x240

Code: [Select]

.calib.detector.general: (12)
rw--rw-------p*0 root   root   <a> fpaName                "ISC0601"

Flir Ex 320x240

Code: [Select]

.calib.detector.general: (12)
rw--rw-------p*0 root   root   <a> fpaName                "ISC0901"

Flir saled this FPA chips
http://www.flir.de/cores/display/?id=51948
ISC1404 "10 micron pitch"

[Chanc3]

Hi Fraser

Thanks for your time putting together, I've downloaded so will read on the train up to London.

Sent from my ONE A2003 using Tapatalk

[Fraser]

Thanks for the comments.

The idea behind this little document was to provide a brief history of the technology used to capture thermal images. Many people seem to buy the consumer grade thermal cameras and not know the origins of the technology.

At this time I am not intending to make the document highly technical with details of Microbolometer pixel dimensions etc as I just wanted people to understand that the Microbolometer is just one of several detector technologies that can be used in the thermal imaging domain. A deeper technical document may be a possibility but unless there is a large enough audience, it is a lot of work for a niche document with minimal readership.

I could write a very technical paper on the design of the FLIR PM570 that I fully reverse engineered at the hardware level. I am not sure that FLIR would take kindly to such a document however and I would be sailing close to the wind on the legal front as well. Sadly that information will have to stay locked away in my archives.

Fraser

[Trax]

I could write a very technical paper on the design of the FLIR PM570 that I fully reverse engineered at the hardware level. I am not sure that FLIR would take kindly to such a document however and I would be sailing close to the wind on the legal front as well. Sadly that information will have to stay locked away in my archives.

That is why you don't speak about writing such a paper but just do it and publish it anonymously using TOR.

[Fraser]

@TRAX,

My background precludes such an act. So no, not an option.

Fraser

[Ben321]

So there's the original FLIR One for iPhone, which uses Lepton 2, and the new FLIR Ones for iOS and Android, which use the Lepton 3. What ever happened to the original Lepton (Lepton 1)? Would that have been like a prototype or something?