Development and characterization of an integrated multispectral polarimetric sensor: a discrete approach

We introduce a new type of integrated imaging sensor that detects multispectral and polarimetric signatures in an IR scene. The sensor is a stack consisting of an IR detector array, and an array of multispectral and polarimetric filters. In this first phase of the research, we fabricated multispectral filters for the 3-5 micron waveband don sapphire substrates and polarimetric filters on silicon substrates. These were characterized separately and in mechanical contact as a single unit. The transmission characteristics of both filters show excellent agreement with the theoretical result. Whenthe filters are integrated into an imaging sensor, such a sensor is anticipated to improve image contrast with sensor-fusion post processing. In addition, it will offer portability and robustness because of its integrated nature.

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