Optical remote sensing of the earth from air and space typically utilizes several channels in the visible and near infrared spectrum. Thin-film optical interference filters, mostly of narrow bandpass type, are applied to select these channels. The filters are arranged in filter wheels, arrays of discrete stripe filters mounted in frames, or patterned arrays on a monolithic substrate. Such multi-channel filter assemblies can be mounted close to the detector, which allows a compact and lightweight camera design. Recent progress in image resolution and sensor sensitivity requires improvements of the optical filter performance. Higher demands placed on blocking in the UV and NIR and in between the spectral channels, in-band transmission and filter edge steepness as well as scattering lead to more complex filter coatings with thicknesses in the range of 10 - 25μm. Technological limits of the conventionally used ion-assisted evaporation process (IAD) can be overcome only by more precise and higher-energetic coating technologies like plasma-assisted reactive magnetron sputtering (PARMS) in combination with optical broadband monitoring. Optics Balzers has developed a photolithographic patterning process for coating thicknesses up to 15μm that is fully compatible with the advanced PARMS coating technology. This provides the possibility of depositing multiple complex high-performance filters on a monolithic substrate. We present an overview of the performance of recently developed filters with improved spectral performance designed for both monolithic filter-arrays and stripe filters mounted in frames. The pros and cons as well as the resulting limits of the filter designs for both configurations are discussed.
L. Gambicorti, D. Piazza, M. Gerber, A. Pommerol, V. Roloff, R. Ziethe, C. Zimmermann, V. Da Deppo, G. Cremonese, I. Ficai Veltroni, M. Marinai, E. Di Carmine, T. Bauer, P. Moebius, N. Thomas
A new technique based on photolithographic processes of thin-film optical pass band coatings on a monolithic substrate has been applied to the filters of the Focal Plane Assembly (FPA) of the Colour and Stereo Surface Imaging System (CaSSIS) that will fly onboard of the ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter to be launched in March 2016 by ESA.
The FPA including is one of the spare components of the Simbio-Sys instrument of the Italian Space Agency (ASI) that will fly on ESA’s Bepi Colombo mission to Mercury. The detector, developed by Raytheon Vision Systems, is a 2kx2k hybrid Si-PIN array with a 10 μm pixel. The detector is housed within a block and has filters deposited directly on the entrance window. The window is a 1 mm thick monolithic plate of fused silica. The Filter Strip Assembly (FSA) is produced by Optics Balzers Jena GmbH and integrated on the focal plane by Leonardo-Finmeccanica SpA (under TAS-I responsibility). It is based on dielectric multilayer interference coatings, 4 colour bands selected with average in-band transmission greater than 95 percent within wavelength range (400-1100 nm), giving multispectral images on the same detector and thus allows CaSSIS to operate in push-frame mode.
The Field of View (FOV) of each colour band on the detector is surrounded by a mask of low reflective chromium (LRC), which also provides with the straylight suppression required (an out-of-band transmission of less than 10-5/nm). The mask has been shown to deal effectively with cross-talk from multiple reflections between the detector surface and the filter.
This paper shows the manufacturing and optical properties of the FSA filters and the FPA preliminary on-ground calibration results.
Optical remote sensing of the earth from air and space typically utilizes several channels from visible (VIS), near infrared (NIR) up to the short wave infrared (SWIR) spectral region. Thin-film optical filters are applied to select these channels. Filter wheels and arrays of discrete stripe filters are standard configurations. To achieve compact and light weight camera designs multi-channel filter plates or assemblies can be mounted close to the electronic detectors. Optics Balzers has implemented a micro-structuring process based on a sequence of multiple coatings and photolithography on the same substrate. High-performance band pass filters are applied by plasma assisted evaporation (plasma IAD) with advance plasma source (APS) technology and optical broad-band monitoring (BBM). This technology has already proven for various multi spectral imager (MSI) configurations on fused silica, sapphire and other substrates for remote sensing application. The optical filter design and performance is limited by the maximum coating thickness micro-structurable by photolithographic lift-off processes and by thermal and radiation load on the photoresist mask during the process Recent progress in image resolution and sensor selectivity requires improvements of optical filter performance. Blocking in the UV and NIR and in between the spectral cannels, in-band transmission and filter edge steepness are subject of current development. Technological limits of the IAD coating accuracy can be overcome by more precise coating technologies like plasma assisted reactive magnetron sputtering (PARMS) and combination with optical broadband monitoring (BBM). We present an overview about concepts and technologies for band-pass filter arrays for multi-spectral imaging at Optics Balzers. Recent performance improvements of filter arrays made by micro-structuring will be presented.
Besides the typical channels in the visible and near infrared spectrum, optical remote sensing of the earth from air and
space utilizes also several channels in the short-wave infrared spectrum from 1000 nm to 3000 nm. Thin-film optical
filters are applied to select these channels, but the application of classical multiple-cavity band-pass filters is impossible.
Because of their additional blocking elements they are disallowed due to geometrical or other non-optical reasons.
Within the sensitivity region of an MCT detector as typical detector device, the selection and blocking of radiation by the
filter has to be provided by a single multilayer system. The spectral region of the SWIR as well as blocking width and
depth require necessarily designs with overall thicknesses of more than 20 μm, with layer numbers up to 100. SiO2 and
TiO2 were used as thin-film materials deposited with reactive e-beam evaporation under ion assistance in a Leybold
SyrusPro box coater. A special challenge was the thickness measurement of the thin films by an optical broadband
monitoring device in the visible range. The results of manufacturing and characterizing of such filters are presented by
three examples for the center wavelengths of 1375 nm, 1610 nm, and 2190 nm.
Optical transparent polymers are used for technical optics for more than 50 years and currently replace glass as optical material in several application fields. Optical functional coatings like mirrors, filters, beam splitters and anti-reflection coatings gain increasingly in importance. New light sources and head mounted systems need light and effective reflector designs. The paper gives an overview about vacuum coating technologies for metal and dielectric layers on polymers for technical optics. Especially for polymers controlling the complete process chain from injection moulding to storing, coating and shipping decides on the technological and commercial success.
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