Variation of NETD caused by nonuniformity correction in thermal imager

The background irradiances in different temperatures are calculated to find its relation with the measured NETD (Noise Equivalent Temperature Difference). In the nonuniformity correction, it always uses the active pixels to cover the dead pixels so that the final value of NETD is an average. Some experimental results show that the video waveform of thermal imaging depends on the setting of the level or the gain. These factors always influence the measured data of NETD. Nevertheless, NETD is a good diagnostic tool for determining the quality of the thermal imager. A NETD analysis for 1-point and 2-point correction is attached at the end of this article.© (1998) COPYRIGHT SPIE--The International Society for Optical Engineering. Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.