Automated minimum resolvable temperature: lessons learned

The automated minimum resolvable temperature (AMRT) test method for IR sensor performance testing is developing into an accepted method of automated test. This paper gives the basis of testing AMRT and shows how it relates to the manual measurement that has been correlated to field performance. The lessons learned as a result of implementing AMRT at Northrop are reported in this paper. These lessons are discussed in the areas of developing algorithms and methodologies which work well in the typical noise environment. Improved methods have been developed to give a better measure of signal response in the presence of many kinds of noise. Various types of noise measurements are addressed as well as their impact on the resulting AMRT.