EE 478 Optical Sources, Detectors, and Radiometry

1996-97 Catalog Data: 3 credits

Fundamentals of optical sources, detectors, and radiometric measurements in the visible and infrared. Radiometry of imaging and nonimaging optical systems, including optical fibers. Detector preamplifiers, noise, NEP, D*, and optical filters. Corequisite: an undergraduate optics course.

Textbooks:

Optical Radiation Detectors, by Dereniak and Crowe, Wiley.

Reference:

None.

Coordinator:

Michael K. Giles, Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering.

Goals:

Students completing EE 478 should be able to analyze the light gathering capabilities of an optical system. Furthermore, they should be able to recognize and calculate the major sources of noise in the detection process, enabling them to compute various figures of merit and evaluate which optical/detector system is best for a particular application. The ultimate goal of EE 478 is to teach students how to design optical/detector systems which achieve a high signal to noise ratio.

Prerequisites by Topic:
  1. Electromagnetic theory (Maxwell's Equations).
  2. Geometrical optics.
  3. Basic electronics and semiconductors.
Topics:
  1. Review of geometric optics and electromagnetic theory.
  2. Laws of radiometry (calculation of radiance, irradiance, intensity, solid angle, etc.).
  3. Blackbody radiation.
  4. Photon detectors (photodiodes, photomultipliers, photoconductors).
  5. Figures of merit (responsivity, NEP, detectivity, SNR, and D*) used in design.
  6. Thermal detectors (bolometers, thermistors, thermopiles, pyroelectrics).
  7. Focal plane arrays/thermal imaging systems
Computer Usage:
  1. Integrate Planck's equation for blackbody radiation for any source temperature and within any wavelength interval.
  2. Modify program 1 to integrate the effective exitance radiated by a blackbody into the design of an optical system, taking into account the detector's responsivity or a given spectral filter function.
ABET Category Content:

Engineering Science: 1 credit or 33%
Engineering Design: 2 credits or 67%

Prepared by:

Michael K. Giles
Date: February 21, 1994
Maintained by eeoffice@nmsu.edu Last update 12-12-96
plane arrays/thermal imaging systems
Computer Usage:
  1. Integrate Planck's equation for blackbody radiation for any source temperature and within any wavelength interval.
  2. Modify program 1 to integrate the effective exitance radiated by a blackbody into the design of an optical system, taking into account the detector's responsivity or a given spectral filter function.
ABET Category Content:

 

Engineering Science: 1 credit or 33%
Engineering Design: 2 credits or 67%

 

Prepared by:

 

Michael K. Giles
Date: February 21, 1994

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