Mid-wave and long-wave infrared point spectrometer
11719576 · 2023-08-08
Assignee
Inventors
- William R Johnson (Pasadena, CA, US)
- Matthew E Kenyon (Pasadena, CA, US)
- Jordana Blacksberg (La Canada, CA, US)
- Carol A Raymond (Pasadena, CA, US)
- Bethany L Ehlmann (Pasadena, CA, US)
- Xiangwen Chen (Pasadena, CA, US)
Cpc classification
G01J3/021
PHYSICS
G01J3/0208
PHYSICS
G01J3/0286
PHYSICS
B64G1/1064
PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
G01J3/0291
PHYSICS
International classification
B64G1/66
PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
Abstract
Methods and devices to implement mid-wave and long-wave infrared point spectrometers are disclosed. The described methods and devices involve bi-faceted gratings, high-operating-temperature barrier infrared and thermal detectors. The disclosed concept can be used to design flight spectrometers that cover broad solar reflectance plus thermal emission spectral ranges with a compact and low-cost instrument suitable for small spacecraft reconnaissance of asteroids, the Moon, and planetary satellites as well as mass-constrained landed missions.
Claims
1. A spectrometer comprising: an optical assembly including a telescope, a grating and a relay system; and a focal plane module including a first detector and a second detector, wherein: i) the optical assembly is configured to: receive light from an object or scene through the telescope, thereby focusing the light, receive the focused light by the grating through the relay system; and split the received light by the grating into a first beam within a first spectral range and a second beam within a second spectral range different from the first spectral range, and ii) the focal plane module is configured to: receive the first beam by the first detector to generate a first output signal in correspondence with a spectral content of the first beam, and receive the second beam by the second detector to generate a second output signal in correspondence with a spectral content of the second beam; iii) the relay system comprises a first relay with three mirrors, and iv) the grating is disposed on a secondary mirror of the first relay.
2. The spectrometer of claim 1, wherein the relay system further comprises a second relay configured to focus the first beam and the second beam onto the focal plane module.
3. The spectrometer of claim 1, wherein the grating is a bi-faceted grating comprising two diffraction grating patterns on a mirror substrate with a different diffraction grating written on each facet of the mirror substrate.
4. The spectrometer of claim 1, wherein the first spectral range includes a mid-wave infrared spectral range and the second spectral range include a long-wave infrared spectral range, and wherein the mid-wave infrared spectral range includes wavelengths in a range of 2 μm to 4 μm, and the long-wave infrared spectral range includes wavelengths in a range of 5.5 μm to 12 μm.
5. The spectrometer of claim 1, further comprising a pinhole disposed between the telescope module and the relay system.
6. A spacecraft comprising the spectrometer of claim 1.
7. A spectrometer comprising: an optical assembly including a telescope, a grating and a relay system; and a focal plane module including a first detector and a second detector, wherein: i) the optical assembly is configured to: receive light from an object or scene through the telescope, thereby focusing the light, receive the focused light by the grating through the relay system; and split the received light by the grating into a first beam within a first spectral range and a second beam within a second spectral range different from the first spectral range, and ii) the focal plane module is configured to: receive the first beam by the first detector to generate a first output signal in correspondence with a spectral content of the first beam, and receive the second beam by the second detector to generate a second output signal in correspondence with a spectral content of the second beam; iii) the first detector comprises a high-operating-temperature barrier infrared detector and the second detector comprises a thermal detector, and iv) the first spectral range includes a mid-wave infrared spectral range and the second spectral range include a long-wave infrared spectral range.
8. The spectrometer of claim 7, wherein the high-operating-temperature barrier infrared detector comprises a two-dimensional focal plan array, and wherein the thermal detector comprises a line array of micro-sized thermopile detectors.
9. The spectrometer of claim 7, wherein in operative conditions a temperature of the high-operating-temperature barrier infrared detector is maintained at a colder than ambient temperature and a temperature of the thermal detector is at ambient temperature.
10. The spectrometer of claim 9, further comprising a cryocooler including cryocooler electronics, the cryocooler being configured to maintain temperature of the high-operating-temperature barrier infrared detector at the colder than ambient temperature.
11. The spectrometer of claim 10, wherein: the first detector further comprises a first readout integrated circuit (ROIC) coupled to the high-operating-temperature barrier infrared detector, a first printed wire assembly (PWA) and a cold plate; the second detector further comprises a second ROIC coupled to the thermal detector, a second PWA and an ambient plate; a combination of the high-operating-temperature barrier infrared detector and the first ROIC are disposed on the first PWA bonded to the cold plate; and a combination of the thermal detector and the second ROIC are disposed on the second PWA bonded to the ambient plate.
12. The spectrometer of claim 11, wherein the first ROIC is configured to generate the first output signal and the second ROIC is configured to generate the second output signal.
13. The spectrometer of claim 12, further comprising payload electronics configured to control the cryocooler electronics and to receive the first and the second output signal for analysis and storage.
14. The spectrometer of claim 13, wherein each of the first detector and the second detector comprises filters to filter out unwanted light.
15. The spectrometer of claim 14, wherein the first detector comprises a cold shield configured to receive the first beam, and wherein the second detector comprises an ambient shield configured to receive the second beam.
16. A method of spectrometry comprising: receiving light from an object or a scene; focusing the light; receiving the focused light by a grating through a relay system, the relay system including a first relay with three mirrors and the grating being disposed on a secondary mirror of the first relay; splitting the focused light by the grating into a first beam within a first spectral range and a second beam within a second spectral range; focusing the first beam on a first detector and the second beam on a second detector; generating by the first detector a first output signal in correspondence with a spectral content of the first beam; and generating by the second detector a second output signal in correspondence with a spectral content of the second beam.
17. The method of claim 16, wherein the first spectral range includes a mid-wave infrared spectral range and the second spectral range include a long-wave infrared spectral range.
18. The method of claim 16, further comprising maintaining the first detector at a cold temperature and the second detector at an ambient temperature.
Description
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
(1)
(2)
(3)
(4)
(5)
(6)
(7)
(8)
(9)
(10)
DETAILED DESCRIPTION
(11)
(12) Light received through system panel (151) is guided to optical assembly (110) using the calibration mirror (181) in (180). As will be described more in detail, the received light is split up in optical assembly (110) and refocused to form two spectra passing through the focal plane module (120) including a first detector (130) and second detector (140).
(13)
(14) With continued reference to
(15) With further reference to
(16) With continued reference to
(17) With reference again to
(18)
(19) Referring back to
(20)
(21) With further reference to
(22) Referring back to
(23)
(24)
(25) Making reference to
(26)
(27) In view of what described throughout the disclosure, the person skilled in the art will appreciate that the disclosed methods and devices leverage, customize and extend three different technologies, i.e. bi-faceted gratings [14], barrier infrared detectors BIRDs [15,16], and thermopile detectors to make it possible to measure the medium-wave infrared (e.g. λ=2 μm to 4 μm) and the long-wave infrared (e.g. λ=5.5 μm to 12 μm) simultaneously in a payload that fits in a, for example, 2 U volume. The disclosed concept can be used to design flight spectrometers that will cover the broad solar reflectance plus thermal emission spectral range with a compact and low-cost instrument suitable for small spacecraft reconnaissance of asteroids, the Moon, and planetary satellites as well as mass-constrained landed missions.
(28)
(29) Medium-Wave Infrared Performance
(30) The radiant power, or radiant flux, measured in watts (W), reaching BIRD is expressed as follows
Φ=τ.sub.atmτ.sub.ZnSeη.sub.oη.sub.gL.sub.sA.sub.iΩ.sub.fsd/n.sup.2 (1)
where
τ.sub.atm—the atmosphere transmission,
T.sub.ZnSe—the transmission of the ZnSe window,
η.sub.o—the efficiency of all the reflective optics, the splitting efficiency of the grating considered,
η.sub.g=the efficiency grating
L.sub.s—the radiance of the blackbody as the source,
A.sub.i—the image area on the detector,
Ω.sub.fsd—the projected solid angle field stop subtends at the detector,
n—the refractive index of air.
(31) All the items in Eq. (1) and the following equations except geometrical ones are spectral dependent. The labels for spectral subscript are omit for simplicity. The spectral radiance L.sub.s is defined by Planck's equation
(32)
where c is the speed of light in vacuum, k.sub.B the Boltzmann constant, h the Planck constant. The projected solid angle Ω.sub.fsd is calculated using the following equation,
(33)
(34) The image area on the detector A.sub.i is determined by A.sub.s/m.sup.2, where A.sub.s and m are the source area and magnification, respectively. The source area is defined by the pinhole size located in front of the blackbody. The number of photons reaching BIRD can be calculated based on the power in Eq. (1) as follows
(35)
where t.sub.int is the integration time, and hc/λ the photon energy. Then the signal output from BIRD due to N photons in term of electron number is
S=QN (5)
where Q is quantum efficiency. The noise in term of electron number is show as
n.sub.tot=√{square root over ((n.sub.read).sup.2+(n.sub.dark).sup.2+(n.sub.digit).sup.2+(n.sub.photon).sup.2)} (6)
where n.sub.read is read noise, n.sub.dark dark current noise, n.sub.digit digitization noise, and n.sub.photon=√{square root over (QN)} is the noise in photo-generated signal, or photon short-noise.
(36) By combing Eqs. (5) and (6), we get the SNR as
(37)
(38) The noise-equivalent delta temperature (NEDT), the change in temperature that yields a SNR ratio of unity, is
(39)
Long-Wave Infrared Performance
(40) Equations (1)-(3) above also applies in this case. In order to obtain thermopile specific response, equations (1)-(3) in [18] may be applied.
(41) The methods and systems described in the present disclosure may be implemented in hardware, software, firmware or any combination thereof. Features described as blocks, modules or components may be implemented together (e.g., in a logic device such as an integrated logic device) or separately (e.g., as separate connected logic devices). The software portion of the methods of the present disclosure may comprise a computer-readable medium which comprises instructions that, when executed, perform, at least in part, the described methods. The computer readable medium may comprise, for example, a random access memory (RAM) and/or a read-only memory (ROM). The instructions may be executed by a processor (e.g., a digital signal processor (DSP), an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), a field programmable logic array (FPGA), a graphic processing unit (GPU) or a general purpose GPU).
(42) A number of embodiments of the disclosure have been described. Nevertheless, it will be understood that various modifications may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the present disclosure. Accordingly, other embodiments are within the scope of the following claims.
(43) The examples set forth above are provided to those of ordinary skill in the art as a complete disclosure and description of how to make and use the embodiments of the disclosure, and are not intended to limit the scope of what the inventor/inventors regard as their disclosure.
(44) Modifications of the above-described modes for carrying out the methods and systems herein disclosed that are obvious to persons of skill in the art are intended to be within the scope of the following claims. All patents and publications mentioned in the specification are indicative of the levels of skill of those skilled in the art to which the disclosure pertains. All references cited in this disclosure are incorporated by reference to the same extent as if each reference had been incorporated by reference in its entirety individually.
(45) It is to be understood that the disclosure is not limited to particular methods or systems, which can, of course, vary. It is also to be understood that the terminology used herein is for the purpose of describing particular embodiments only, and is not intended to be limiting. As used in this specification and the appended claims, the singular forms “a,” “an,” and “the” include plural referents unless the content clearly dictates otherwise. The term “plurality” includes two or more referents unless the content clearly dictates otherwise. Unless defined otherwise, all technical and scientific terms used herein have the same meaning as commonly understood by one of ordinary skill in the art to which the disclosure pertains.
(46) The references in the present application, shown in the reference list below, are incorporated herein by reference in their entirety.
LIST OF REFERENCES
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