Appeal No. 2006-1049
Application No. 09/667,826
imaging systems employing either non-cooled or cryogenically cooled focal plane
arrays. (U.S. Patent 5,811,808, col. 1, lines 7-11).
2. Applicants state at column 2, lines 5-8, that:
A consideration which is extremely important for maximizing the
quality of the output image from a focal plane array infrared detector
is compensating for nonuniformity in the individual detector elements
in the array.
3. Applicants further state at column 2, lines 8-17, that:
Whereas ideally a uniform temperature scene directed to the focal
plane array would produce a completely uniform output at each pixel,
in practice, the output of the individual detector elements may vary by
a significant percentage of the average output level. When an actual
scene is detected, such detector element nonuniformity can
significantly degrade the image quality or even completely mask the
actual image. This degrading of the image due to detector element
nonuniformity is sometimes called spatial or fixed pattern noise.
4. Applicants opine at column 2, lines 33-42, that:
The problem of nonuniformity in the detector elements is directly
related to issues of manufacturing throughput and cost. That is, if very
high uniformity is required for the detector arrays to ensure good
image quality, the number of focal plane arrays which must be
rejected will increase on average. This in turn reduces throughput,
increasing per unit costs. Therefore, it is generally preferable for
nonuniformity to be tolerated by virtue of compensation in the
detector electronics rather than controlling nonuniformity during
detector array fabrication.
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