Relationship between microscanned image quality and fill factor of detectors

Microscanning is an important technique in high-resolution electro-optical imaging. It can increase the resolution and improve the performance of imaging systems. For optimum design of a staring imaging system with microscanning modes it is necessary to choose the optimum microscanning mode according to the fill factor of the detector. Hence it is important to study the effect of the fill factor on the microscanning image quality. With some assumptions, we introduce the sampling-averaging modulation transfer function of a detector array at the spatial Nyquist frequency with which to study quantitatively the improvement in image quality of various microscanning modes for selected fill factors (1, 2/3, and 1/2). Analytical results show that the amount of improvement is closely associated with the fill factor. Finally, typical sampling imaging of focal plane arrays with these fill factors are simulated. Experimental results qualitatively describe the effect of the fill factor on the microscanning image and show good agreement with theoretical analysis.