A multi-element thermal imaging system based on an uncooled bolometric array

Abstract

Thermal imaging is a high efficiency method for monitoring the technical state of thermal power indus try objects, which has found wide application in devel oped countries. It is based on remote measurement of temperature fields on surfaces of buildings and heat pipelines, as well as thermal and electric power equip ment. These fields contain information on heat exchange processes of inside and outside objects, non uniformities in the thermal and physical properties of barriers, the quality of thermal insulation, defects in equipments, etc.A wide range of commercial thermal imaging sys tems produced, mainly, by foreign countries, is avail able on the market. Nevertheless, for enterprises of the Russian and Ukrainian heat power industries, the pos sibility of carrying out regular thermal imaging inspec tion is limited, on the one side, by the high price of such a system and, on the other, by the absence of spe cial software in these systems, which would allow not only the obtaining of thermal maps of surfaces, but also prompt quantitative estimation of the thermal losses, the parameters of safety constructions, the characteristics of thermal insulation, and other parameters in comparison with the requirements of standards. It is impossible to introduce these auxiliary functions into the software of serially produced ther mal imaging systems, which do not allow access for changing and updating their hardware and software. Therefore, to perform specific or nonstandard tasks, special thermal imaging devices or "open architec ture" systems are currently developed throughout the world [1]. The state of the art of domestically produced thermal imaging systems that can be used as a basis for developing systems flexibly adaptable to each specific diagnostic task is mainly limited by single element devices or systems based on cooled linear arrays or small format arrays, e.g., IRTIS 2000 single element systems (OOO IRTIS, Russia) [2], TK 1 (Ukraine) [3,4], and systems based on multielement small for mat cooled receivers (Ukraine) [5]. The advantage of these systems is in the availability of its hardware and software, i.e., the possibility of not only manufacturing an instrument optimally adapted for a specific task, but also of easily upgrading it during operation for a new task. The necessity of mechanical scanning and the use of liquid nitrogen for cooling the receivers are the drawbacks of all the above systems. This essentially limits their field of application and can be attributed to the requirements for their costs and the absence of the technology for producing high quality large format uncooled bolometric arrays in Russia and Ukraine.Today, some firms specializing in manufacturing electron optical devices have offered for free sale a number of original equipment manufacturer (OEM) IR modules composed of uncooled arrays of large for mat IR detectors, which have minimum electronic equipment for production of video signals in either format and are intended for use as a basis in designing thermal imaging systems with n...

ТЕРМОГРАФІЧНЕ ДОСЛІДЖЕННЯ УРАЖЕННЯ М’ЯКИХ ТКАНИН ЛЮДИНИ ТА НИЗЬКОТЕМПЕРАТУРНОГО ВПЛИВУ НА БІОЛОГІЧНІ ТКАНИНИ in vivo

“…Thermographic survey of patients is made with an original thermal field analyzer based on an uncooled matrix (384 × 288) of microbolometers [16]. A relative temperature scale is used for the quantitative analysis of the obtained thermograms.…”