Thermal, or infrared imaging systems have continued to increase in importance over the years. This is due to several factors:
The applications of IR systems have grown dynamically in importance both in the military as well as in industrial applications
IR detector technology has matured substantially, to the point where many IR detectors are available and economically producible
This increased importance of infrared systems, combined with continually better performing and more cost effective IR detectors has put an ever increasing demand on the optical system and it's design. Although many of the classical optical design and engineering related derivations, guidelines, tradeoffs, and other considerations developed for visible systems can be applied directly to infrared systems, there are many important considerations, some of them quite subtle, that are considerably different in the infrared, and which can cause devastating problems if not properly taken into account. In fact, if one were to design the optics for an infrared scanning system using totally the guidelines derived from visible system engineering principles, there is a good chance that the system would perform poorly, if at all. In this paper we will review the many aspects of optical system design for the infrared. Although we intend to cover primarily those areas which are unique to IR systems, one will quickly realize that this will in reality cause us to cover most aspects of optical design technology.
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