Responsivity and noise evaluation of infrared thermal imaging camera

In this paper, the evaluation method for the responsivity and noise characteristics of an infrared thermal imaging camera was presented. Signal transfer function and noise equivalent temperature difference of the infrared thermal imaging camera were obtained by using a differential mode blackbody that is able to control the temperature difference T between an infrared target and its background. And we verified the suitability of our evaluation method through comparison between the found noise equivalent temperature difference and the specification of the camera. In addition, the difference of 0.01 K of the two noise equivalent temperature differences calculated from with and without nonuniformity correction suggests that the nonuniformity correction is essential process for the evaluation of the infrared thermal imaging camera.