The RAD-900 infrared (IR) radiometer, manufactured by Optikos and distributed by Armstrong Optical, allows users to make precise measurements of radiometric temperature and spectral radiance.
The system operates in the both the MWIR and LWIR bands and may be used to carry out both 1D and 2D source-radiance measurements when installed on the ASB-920 angular scan base.
Through its calibration, the RAD-900 provides traceability to national standards and to the International Temperature Scale.
Most thermal target generators are factory-calibrated to provide precise physical temperature differences between their foreground and background.
However, the reflective or refractive collimators with which they are typically paired can attenuate the radiation from these target generators, making the thermal contrast of the target appear smaller than the physical difference.
The RAD-900 provides an accurate means of performing a radiometric calibration for a thermal target generation system by accurately measuring the radiometric temperature difference of the target as a function of the physical temperature difference.
In this role, it is an essential component of a complete thermal imager testing laboratory.
With a NIST-traceable radiometric calibration, the RAD-900 has an absolute accuracy of less than 0.1C and serves as a cavity blackbody transfer standard for calibrating infrared sources.
The minimum resolvable temperature difference (MRTD) of 0.002C and angular resolution (Instantaneous Field of View) of 1mRad/0.05C make the RAD-900 applicable to a range of measurement requirements including: uniformity and temporal stability testing of infrared sources; absolute calibration of collimated infrared test targets; calibration of radiometric versus physical temperature differences for collimated thermal targets with first and second order fitting.
The RAD-900 has been designed with input from the many RAD-600 and RAD-800 users around the world and features many enhancements to the original systems: tool-free interchangeability of objective optics using proprietary bayonet mount; tool-free interchangeability of detectors (3-5um MWIR and 8-12um LWIR); 12-position motorised filter wheel for broad and narrow-band filters; automatically compensates for changes in ambient temperature; built-in infrared verification source for checking the calibration status; boresighted camera and visible laser to aid in the pointing of the radiometer at the target region of interest and for the placement of the radiometer entrance pupil within the collimated beam; no external electronics control unit.
Power is supplied from a single low-voltage unit and all control is carried out from a laptop or desktop computer via a single USB cable.
