Optical Microelectromechanical Systems Technologies for Spectrally Adaptive Sensing and Imaging

Modern image processing performed on-board low Size, Weight, and Power (SWaP) platforms, must provide high- performance while simultaneously reducing memory footprint, power consumption, and computational complexity. Image preprocessing, along with downstream image exploitation algorithms such as object detection and recognition, and georegistration, place a heavy burden on power and processing resources. Image preprocessing often includes image denoising to improve data quality for downstream exploitation algorithms. High-performance image denoising is typically performed in the wavelet domain, where noise generally spreads and the wavelet transform compactly captures high information-bearing image characteristics. In this paper, we improve modeling fidelity of a previously-developed, computationally-efficient wavelet-based denoising algorithm. The modeling improvements enhance denoising performance without significantly increasing computational cost, thus making the approach suitable for low-SWAP platforms. Specifically, this paper presents modeling improvements to the Sendur-Selesnick model (SSM) which implements a bivariate wavelet shrinkage denoising algorithm that exploits interscale dependency between wavelet coefficients. We formulate optimization problems for parameters controlling deadzone size which leads to improved denoising performance. Two formulations are provided; one with a simple, closed form solution which we use for numerical result generation, and the second as an integral equation formulation involving elliptic integrals. We generate image denoising performance results over different image sets drawn from public domain imagery, and investigate the effect of wavelet filter tap length on denoising performance. We demonstrate denoising performance improvement when using the enhanced modeling over performance obtained with the baseline SSM model.

In this chapter, the state-of-the-art terahertz antennas based on integrated circuit technology for imaging and sensing applications are discussed. It is evident that in the terahertz imaging system, a terahertz source plays a significant role, and for the pulsed terahertz spectroscopy, the use of photoconductive terahertz antenna is generally required. Therefore, it is necessary to analyze the developments occurred so far in the field of terahertz antennas related to terahertz sensing and imaging applications. An optimum design of terahertz array antenna helps to enhance the imaging capabilities to address the considerations such as limited depth-of-field (DoF) that is the distance over which an object is considered in focus and size-weight-and-power (SWaP) of terahertz source for imaging applications. These are the important considerations for applications such as stand-off imaging and surveillance of moving targets where the high angular resolution as well as extended depth-of-field is the key for successful detection of hidden explosives and illicit drugs.

With quantum optical technologies advancing toward real-world deployment, their success depends on reducing the size, weight, and power (SWaP) of the laser sources that drive them. While photonic integrated circuit (PIC)-based lasers have emerged as promising replacements to traditional bulky lasers, achieving a PIC-based laser system that satisfies both optical and functional requirements demands a system-level co-design of optics, electronics, and software that has not yet been realized. Here, we demonstrate a low-SWaP, tunable, and narrow-linewidth laser system based on PICs and programmable control electronics for the 780 nm region of the near-infrared spectrum. By leveraging the Vernier effect between a Fabry–Pérot laser diode (FPLD) and a microring resonator (MRR), we design the PIC to serve as an external cavity to self-injection lock the FPLD, resulting in a tunable laser with narrow linewidth. We package this PIC-laser into a standard butterfly package and drive it using a custom digital laser controller with a user-friendly interface. We design the programmable control electronics to meet the specific requirements of a PIC-laser as well as enable advanced functionalities that support cutting-edge quantum and classical optical applications. The complete laser system, which also includes optical isolators and fiber coupling, achieves up to 9.5 nm coarse tuning, 50 GHz mode-hop-free fine tuning, 30 mW free-space output power (before isolators), kHz-level intrinsic linewidth, and over 50 dB side-mode suppression ratio (SMSR).

The human iris is traditionally imaged in Near Infrared (NIR) wavelengths (700nm-900nm) for iris recognition. The absorption co-efficient of color inducing pigment in iris, called Melanin, decreases after 700nm thus minimizing its effect when iris is imaged at wavelengths greater than 700nm. This thesis provides an overview and explores the efficacy of iris recognition at different wavelength bands ranging from visible spectrum (450nm-700nm) to NIR (700nm-900nm) and Short Wave Infrared (900nm-1600nm). Different matching methods are investigated at different wavelength bands to facilitate cross-spectral iris recognition.;The iris recognition analysis in visible wavelengths provides a baseline performance when iris is captured using common digital cameras. A novel blob-based matching algorithm is proposed to match RGB (visible spectrum) iris images. This technique generates a match score based on the similarity between blob like structures in the iris images. The matching performance of the blob based matching method is compared against that of classical 'Iris Code' matching method, SIFT-based matching method and simple correlation matching, and results indicate that the blob-based matching method performs reasonably well. Additional experiments on the datasets show that the iris images can be matched with higher confidence for light colored irides than dark colored irides in the visible spectrum.;As part of the analysis in the NIR spectrum, iris images captured in visible spectrum are matched against those captured in the NIR spectrum. Experimental results on the WVU multispectral dataset show promise in achieving a good recognition performance when the images are captured using the same sensor under the same illumination conditions and at the same resolution. A new proprietary 'FaceIris' dataset is used to investigate the ability to match iris images from a high resolution face image in visible spectrum against an iris image acquired in NIR spectrum. Matching in 'FaceIris' dataset presents a scenario where the two images to be matched are obtained by different sensors at different wavelengths, at different ambient illumination and at different resolution. Cross-spectral matching on the 'FaceIris' dataset presented a challenge to achieve good performance. Also, the effect of the choice of the radial and angular parameters of the normalized iris image on matching performance is presented. The experiments on WVU multispectral dataset resulted in good separation between genuine and impostor score distributions for cross-spectral matching which indicates that iris images in obtained in visible spectrum can be successfully matched against NIR iris images using 'IrisCode' method.;Iris is also analyzed in the Short

Spectral albedos of open water, nilas, nilas with frost flowers, slush, and first-year ice with both thin and thick snow cover were measured in the East Antarctic sea-ice zone during the Sea Ice Physics and Ecosystems eXperiment II (SIPEX II) from September to November 2012, near 65°S, 120°E. Albedo was measured across the ultraviolet (UV), visible and near-infrared (nIR) wavelengths, augmenting a dataset from prior Antarctic expeditions with spectral coverage extended to longer wavelengths, and with measurement of slush and frost flowers, which had not been encountered on the prior expeditions. At visible and UV wavelengths, the albedo depends on the thickness of snow or ice; in the nIR the albedo is determined by the specific surface area. The growth of frost flowers causes the nilas albedo to increase by 0.2–0.3 in the UV and visible wavelengths. The spectral albedos are integrated over wavelength to obtain broadband albedos for wavelength bands commonly used in climate models. The albedo spectrum for deep snow on first-year sea ice shows no evidence of light-absorbing particulate impurities (LAI), such as black carbon (BC) or organics, which is consistent with the extremely small quantities of LAI found by filtering snow meltwater. Estimated BC mixing ratios were in the range 0.1–0.5 ng of carbon per gram of snow.

Spectral imaging, which includes hyperspectral and multispectral imaging, can provide images in numerous wavelength bands within and beyond the visible light spectrum. Emerging technologies that enable compact, portable spectral imaging cameras can facilitate new applications in biomedical imaging. With this review paper, researchers will (1)understand the technological trends of upcoming spectral cameras, (2)understand new specific applications that portable spectral imaging unlocked, and (3)evaluate proper spectral imaging systems for their specific applications. We performed a comprehensive literature review in three databases (Scopus, PubMed, and Web of Science). We included only fully realized systems with definable dimensions. To best accommodate many different definitions of "compact," we included a table of dimensions and weights for systems that met our definition. There is a wide variety of contributions from industry, academic, and hobbyist spaces. A variety of new engineering approaches, such as Fabry-Perot interferometers, spectrally resolved detector array (mosaic array), microelectro-mechanical systems, 3D printing, light-emitting diodes, and smartphones, were used in the construction of compact spectral imaging cameras. In bioimaging applications, these compact devices were used for in vivo and ex vivo diagnosis and surgical settings. Compact and ultracompact spectral imagers are the future of spectral imaging systems. Researchers in the bioimaging fields are building systems that are low-cost, fast in acquisition time, and mobile enough to be handheld.

Vacuum packaging of high-performance surface-micromachined uncooled microbolometer detectors and focal-plane arrays (FPAs) for infrared imaging and nonimaging applications, inertial MEMS (microelectromechanical systems) accelerometers and gyroscopes, and rf MEMS resonators is a key issue in the technology development path to low-cost, high-volume MEMS production. In this article, two approaches to vacuum packaging for MEMS will be discussed. The first is component-level vacuum packaging, a die-level approach that involves packaging individual die in a ceramic package using either a silicon or germanium lid. The second approach is wafer-level vacuum packaging, in which the vacuum-packaging process is carried out at the wafer level prior to dicing the wafer into individual die. We focus the discussion of MEMS vacuum packaging on surface-micromachined uncooled amorphous silicon infrared microbolometer detectors and FPAs for which both component-level and wafer-level vacuum packaging have found widespread application and system insertion. We first discuss the requirement for vacuum packaging of uncooled a-Si microbolometers and FPAs. Second, we discuss the details of the component-level and wafer-level vacuum-packaging approaches. Finally, we discuss the system insertion of wafer-level vacuum packaging into the Raytheon 2000AS uncooled infrared imaging camera product line that employs a wafer-level-packaged 160 × 120 pixel a-Si infrared FPA.

Intersecting corners and checkerboards of negative refractive index materials (NRIM) represent highly singular electromagnetic systems that involve very highly enhanced local fields and the local density of modes. It is well known that plasmonic metallic systems can mimic the behavior of NRIM in the near-field limit at optical frequencies. Opaque gold films have been structured by focused ion-beam technologies at submicrometer scales in a checkerboard fashion and their optical properties measured. Subwavelength square holes in thick gold films placed in checkerboard fashion show a broadband extraordinary transmission of light at visible wavelengths. We find that the smaller the square holes, the larger is the transmission over a band of wavelengths from 650 to 950 nm suggesting that such structured surfaces have very unusual effective medium properties, which is confirmed by the band-structure diagrams computed with finite elements. Theoretical results also confirm the experimental transmission measured to be well over $80%$ from 750 to 950 nm for a checkerboard with $150\phantom{\rule{0.28em}{0ex}}\mathrm{nm}\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}150$ nm square holes. This unusual broadband nature of checkerboard structured films is confirmed by the dark-field reflection spectra. Microscopic studies reveal that these structures have enhanced interaction of light at the edges and corners. These checkerboards are also found to give rise to an enhancement of fluorescence by imbedded dye molecules. There is a strong correspondence between the theoretical predictions and the experimental measurements.

Phosphorescent iridium(III) complexes are widely recognized for their unique properties in the excited triplet state, making them crucial for various applications including biological sensing and imaging. Most of these complexes display single phosphorescence emission from the lowest-lying triplet state after undergoing highly efficient intersystem crossing (ISC) and ultrafast internal conversion (IC) processes. However, in cases where these excited-state processes are restricted, the less common phenomenon of dual emission has been observed. This dual emission phenomenon presents an opportunity for developing biological probes and imaging agents with multiple emission bands of different wavelengths. Compared to intensity-based biosensing, where the existence and concentration of an analyte are indicated by the brightness of the probe, the emission profile response involves modifications in emission color. This enables quantification by utilizing the intensity ratio of different wavelengths, which is self-calibrating and unaffected by the probe concentration and excitation laser power. Moreover, dual-emissive probes have the potential to demonstrate distinct responses to multiple analytes at separate wavelengths, providing orthogonal detection capabilities. In this concept, we focus on iridium(III) complexes displaying fluorescence-phosphorescence or phosphorescence-phosphorescence dual emission, along with their applications as biological probes for sensing and imaging.

The study attempts to investigate the significant spatiotemporal variations in the continental United States’ streamflow as a response to large-scale climate signals across multiple spectral bands (SBs). Using non-parametric (long-term) trend and (abrupt) shift detection tests, coupled with discrete wavelet transform, 237 unimpaired streamflow stations were analyzed over a study period of 62 years (1951 to 2012), looking at the water year and seasonal data, along with three discrete SBs of two, four, and eight years. Wavelet coherence analysis, derived from continuous wavelet transform, determined the association between the regional streamflow patterns and three large-scale climate signals, i.e., El Nino Southern Oscillation (ENSO), Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO), and Atlantic Multi-decadal Oscillation (AMO), across continuous SBs ranging from two to 16 years. The results indicated significant positive (negative) trends and shifts in the northeastern and north-central (northwestern) regions with an increase in the number of stations as the SBs increased. The spatiotemporal association between regional streamflow and the climate signals varied significantly (from no correlation, Rn2~ 0, to perfect correlation, Rn2~ 1.0) even amongst adjacent regions. Among the climate signals, ENSO showed the highest association (Rn2~ 1.0), having a consistent phase relationship with the regional streamflow patterns, especially in the higher SBs. PDO (with the least influence among the three signals) and AMO showed stronger associations, mostly in the lower SBs. These results may help explain the teleconnections between the climate signals and the US streamflow variations across multiple SBs, which may lead to improved regional flow regulations.

In addition to the BLINC/MIRAC IR science instruments, the Magellan adaptive secondary AO system will have an EEV CCD47 that can be used both for visible AO science and as a wide-field acquisition camera. The effects of atmospheric dispersion on the elongation of the diffraction limited Magellan adaptive optics system point spread function (PSF) are significant in the near IR. This elongation becomes particularly egregious at visible wavelengths, culminating in a PSF that is 2000&mgr;m long in one direction and diffraction limited (30-60 &mgr;m) in the other over the wavelength band 0.5-1.0&mgr;m for a source at 45° zenith angle. The planned Magellan AO system consists of a deformable secondary mirror with 585 actuators. This number of actuators should be sufficient to nyquist sample the atmospheric turbulence and correct images to the diffraction limit at wavelengths as short as 0.7&mgr;m, with useful science being possible as low as 0.5&mgr;m. In order to achieve diffraction limited performance over this broad band, 2000&mgr;m of lateral color must be corrected to better than 10&mgr;m. The traditional atmospheric dispersion corrector (ADC) consists of two identical counter-rotating cemented doublet prisms that correct the primary chromatic aberration. We propose two new ADC designs: the first consisting of two identical counter-rotating prism triplets, and the second consisting of two pairs of cemented counter-rotating prism doublets that use both normal dispersion and anomalous dispersion glass in order to correct both primary and secondary chromatic aberration. The two designs perform 58% and 68%, respectively, better than the traditional two-doublet design. We also present our design for a custom removable wide-field lens that will allow our CCD47 to switch back and forth between an 8.6" FOV for AO science and a 25.8" FOV for acquisition.

11. Measurement of Radiation Flux and Equivalent Radiation Temperature in the Atmosphere

Infrared detector technology based on intersubband absorption in III-V materials has shown remarkable success in advancing low-cost, highly uniform, high-operability, large-format focal plane arrays (FPAs). It also permits vertical integration of detector stacks to create multi-band or tunable FPAs. Each detector stack of multi-quantum well layers absorbs photons within the specified wavelength band, allowing other photons to transmit through permitting multiband detection. The wavelength of the peak response and cutoff can be continuously tailored by varying layer thickness (well width), barrier composition (barrier height), and carrier density (well-doping density). The GaAs/Al_xGa_1-xAs material system allows the quantum well parameters to be varied over a range wide enough to enable light detection at any wavelength range from 6 to 20 μm. By adding a few monolayers of In_yGa_1-yAs during the GaAs quantum well growth, the short wavelength limit can be extended to 3 μm. The spectral bandwidth of these detectors can be tuned from narrow (Δλ/λ ~ 10%) to wide (Δλ/λ ~ 40%), according to application requirements. Multi-band detector technology can be extended to near IR or visible wavelengths by adding detector layers utilizing interband absorption in these materials.

In wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) systems, such as the fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) service (e.g., wavelength 1.31/1.55/1.49 mm in the EPON and wavelength 1.31/1.545/1.5x mm in the APON), coarse and dense WDM are two key technologies. In general, it takes two steps to accomplish this mixing (coarse/dense) WDM functions. In order to make the WDM device compact and low loss, it is necessary to integrate these two WDM functions into one step. In this paper, we propose two typical designs of the coarse/dense multiplexers, which multiplex the coarse/dense-WDM (C/D-WDM) signals simultaneously. We believe that, although their operation principle is simple, the proposed structures simplify the design of integrated photonic devices and will be needed in future WDM systems, specially for the WDM filter in the FTTH service. The proposed devices consist of a grating-assisted symmetrical or asymmetrical Mach-Zehnder interferometer with the wideband coupler (WBC) and/or the 3dB coupler. Depending on different operation principles, the WBC coupler operates as a 3dB coupler in two wavelength bands or operates as a 3dB coupler in one wavelength band and a cross-state coupler in another one. In this paper, firstly, the operation principles of the proposed C/D-WDM Multiplexers are demonstrated though an example of multiplexing three signals (l1/l2/l3) in two wavelength bands, where l1 (e. g., 1.31mm) belongs to the first band and l2/l3 (e. g., 1.55/1.5x mm) belong to the second band. Then, the design procedure and simulation results of those C/D-WDM multiplexers and related components such as the WBC coupler and planar gratings, which are based on the silica material, are given. Finally, some related issues such as polarizatin dependence and material dispersion are discussed.

In this paper, we demonstrated a handheld confocal fluorescence microscope using dual-axis confocal architecture with a microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) scanner. The laser sources for the microscope are both in visible (660 nm) and near-infrared (778 nm) wavelengths. The microscope will be used for in vivo cervical cancer screening in real-time with human patients. The maximum imaging depth is over 300 μm into the tissue for epithelial cancer screening. The maximum field of view (FOV) is 550 μm × 500 μm with 14 frames/second.