Design of Infrared Zoom Collimator in Focal Length Tesring of IR Image Simulator

[[abstract]]ABSTRACT An infrared (IR) target simulator produces an IR scene that includes a static background, a moving/growing target and a moving/growing flare. The simulator is computer-controlled and includes all the algorithms to transform object space inputs to control commands. The IR collimator is the subsystem of the target simulator, and it works as the standard targets placed in “optical infinity” (very long distance) for the tested thermal cameras. A novel infrared zoom collimator design and illumination analysis are given in this paper. The zooming results give the dynamic simulation of the IR target by zoom in or zoom out, and show the real simulated image rather than the energy pattern. The illumination analysis of an IR source is presented to achieve an optimized image quality