Development of a Commercial Micro-spectrometer for Remote Field Deployment

The Remote Sensing Group (RSG) of the Wyant College of Optical Sciences at the University of Arizona currently has a single hyperspectral instrument, a Spectrometer Arduino Mega (SpAM), deployed to its Radiometric Calibration Test Site (RadCaTS). Results have shown SpAM to be a robust and accurate instrument, however its high degree of customization makes it difficult to productively reproduce. The Hamamatsu C12880MA is a commercial micro-spectrometer that may provide a solution to RSG’s need for an easily deployable and reproducible hyperspectral instrument. The C12880MA is an ultra-compact grating-based spectrometer that operates in the visible and near-infrared (VNIR).This work presents the initial development of the C12880MA, which involves prototyping and characterizing the device for automated field deployment. The micro-spectrometer is prototyped using a device-specific evaluation circuit, measurement software, and a custom 3D printed electrostatic discharge (ESD) safe housing. It is characterized in RSG’s laboratory and auxiliary facilities. The eventual goal for this device is to become an autonomous standalone system that can be easily deployed and integrated into the RadCaTS suite of instruments. The results from this work will determine the efficacy of the instrument as well as its potential for future deployment. The daily hyperspectral measurements from this device, if deployed, will supplement the current data and reduce the uncertainty of RadCaTS results