| US 7,468,504 B2 | ||
| Spectral filter for optical sensor | ||
| James Halvis, Severna Park, Md. (US); and Richard Calve McKee, Ellicott City, Md. (US) | ||
| Assigned to Northrop Grumman Corporation, Los Angeles, Calif. (US) | ||
| Filed on Mar. 09, 2006, as Appl. No. 11/370,846. | ||
| Prior Publication US 2007/0210244 A1, Sep. 13, 2007 | ||
| Int. Cl. G01J 3/50 (2006.01); H01J 5/16 (2006.01); H01J 40/14 (2006.01) | ||
| U.S. Cl. 250—226 [348/267; 348/277] | 8 Claims |
| 1. An optical sensor, comprising:
an optical assembly having at least one steering mirror, at least one lens and at least one focal plane;
an imaging array disposed at the focal plane; and
a spectral filter, proximate to the imaging array, including:
a panchromatic filter region having a plurality of panchromatic pixels and a panchromatic resolution; and
a multi-spectral filter region having a plurality of multi-spectral pixels and a multi-spectral resolution less than the panchromatic
resolution, each of said multi-spectral pixels having a plurality of color pixels,
wherein the panchromatic pixels are uniformly sized, the multi-spectral pixels are uniformly sized, the panchromatic resolution
is an integer multiple of the multi-spectral resolution and each multi-spectral pixel includes four uniformly-sized color
pixels responsive to the blue, green, red and near infrared spectral bands, respectively, the color pixel size being the same
as the panchromatic pixel size.
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