Miniaturization of a VNIR hyperspectral imager

摘要

A new approach for the design and fabrication of a miniaturized Hyperspectral imager is described. A unique and compact instrument has been developed by taking advantage of light propagation within bonded solid blocks of fused silica. The resulting microHSI is a VNIR hyperspectral sensor capable of operating in the 400-1000 nm wavelength range developed, patented, and built by NovaSol. The microHSI spectrograph weighs 12.4 oz from slit input to camera output. The microHSI can accommodate either custom foreoptics or C-mount input lenses to adapt to a wide range of fields-of-view (FOV). The prototype microHSI uses a telecentric F2.8 foreoptic, with 36 mm focal length, to cover a 15 degree FOV. It can resolve 960 spatial pixels, resulting in a 280 μrad IFOV for this particular foreoptics implementation. With a 1 nm/unbinned pixel dispersion, the spectrometer spectral resolution is 3.5 nm. Results of field and laboratory testing of the prototype microHSI are presented and show that the sensor consistently meets technical performance predictions. The prototype microHSI employs a holographic diffraction grating embedded within the optical blocks resulting in a 19% diffraction efficiency. Future units are anticipated to incorporate a blazed grating for improved throughput and SNR. The microHSI concept can be extended to operation over other wavelength regions. Designs are nearing completion for a SWIR version of the device, and a miniaturized LWIR microHSI sensor is currently at the conceptual design stage.