ABSTRACT
This chapter aims to discuss the basic technologies together and apply them to the design of several system concepts. It introduces the concepts of staring and scanning sensors, followed by examples of modern thermal imaging systems using both staring and scanning techniques. The chapter discusses several signal processing techniques for extracting a target signal from a cluttered background. When sensitivity is an issue, the so-called fast scan approach can be used. If sensitivity is important, then the integration time of the detectors must be increased. Infrared sensor concepts can be divided into two generic categories: staring and scanning. The type of sensor employed has a large impact on nearly all its subsystems, including pointing, focal plane, number and types of spectral bands, optics, and a signal processing. Scanning infrared sensors have a long history, since the first infrared sensors designed involved scanning.
