Evaluation of infrared collimators for testing thermal imaging systems

Abstract

Infrared reflective collimators are important components of expensive sophisticated test systems used for testing thermal imagers. Too low quality collimators can become a source of significant measurement errors and collimators of too high quality can unnecessarily increase cost of a test system. In such a situation it is important for test system users to know proper requirements on the collimator and to be able to verify its performance. A method for evaluation of infrared reflective collimators used in test systems for testing thermal imagers is presented in this paper. The method requires only easily available optical equipment and can be used not only by collimator manufactures but also by users of test equipment to verify performance of the collimators used for testing thermal imagers. © Association of Polish Electrical Engineers 2007.