Pattern design and imaging methods in 3-D coded aperture techniques

The authors have conducted research on coded aperture patterns composed of cyclic difference set uniformly redundant arrays (URA) such that the system point-spread-function is a delta function and no spurious artifacts are introduced by the spatial multiplexing process. Such arrays have the property that the autocorrelation functions have a single peak and flat sidelobes. Although there are some analytical methods for designing some patterns with such a property, the theory is quite incomplete thus requires a different approach. The authors have searched a complete list of such patterns for a range of 1-D and 2-D dimensions, and have obtained some rules. The available results can be used as practical patterns, or as future research reference for coded aperture pattern design. The authors also summarize the 3-D coded aperture imaging methods through a single-angle view (such as coded aperture laminography, moving object coded aperture imaging) and through multiple-angle views (such as modular coded aperture technology, coded aperture tomography), describe the image reconstruction and data processing algorithms, and discuss and compare the performance of different coded aperture imaging methods. Simulation and experimental results have been provided for verification