Development of staring hyperspectral imagers

There is much interest in developing staring hyperspectral imagers using tunable filters that acquire a 2-d spectral image and build up an image cube as a function of time. At ARL, we are developing hyperspectral imagers using a number of novel tunable filter technologies. These include acousto-optic tunable filters (AOTFs), diffractive optics technology that can provide single spectral region as well as simultaneous image cubes in two or more spectral regions, and micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS) based Fabry-Perot (FP) tunable filters to develop miniature imagers. New materials are being developed to design AOTFs, MEMS technology based diffractive optics lenslet arrays and FP tunable filters are being investigated to develop miniature hyperspectral imagers. In this paper, a brief overview of this research is presented.