Is LED technology suitable to replace a tungsten filament lamp for night vision devices and I2 tubes testing?

N. Roy; S. Potvin; A. Martel; M. Dupuis; J.-C. Bouchard; A. Grégoire

doi:10.1117/12.3018028

7 June 2024 Is LED technology suitable to replace a tungsten filament lamp for night vision devices and I2 tubes testing?

N. Roy, S. Potvin, A. Martel, M. Dupuis, J.-C. Bouchard, A. Grégoire

Author Affiliations +

Proceedings Volume 13045, Infrared Imaging Systems: Design, Analysis, Modeling, and Testing XXXV; 130450U (2024) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.3018028
Event: SPIE Defense + Commercial Sensing, 2024, National Harbor, Maryland, United States

Abstract

Testing of Night Vision Devices (NVD) and I2 tubes are regulated by a long series of US Defense standards (often called military standards or MIL standards). These standards set mandatory testing conditions to be fulfilled. Among others, the radiation source used in the tests shall be a tungsten filament lamp operated at a color temperature of 2856 kelvins (K), ±50 K. In recent years, we have noticed that those tungsten filament lamp with a sufficient spectral shape accuracy and stability have been harder to procure. In this paper, we present our characterization efforts to determine if a commercially available LED-based light source is suitable to replace a tungsten filament lamp for NVDs and I2 tubes testing. A LED-based light source is compared to a 2856 K filament lamp in terms of spectral shape, output power linearity, dynamic range and relative intensity noise (RIN). We also present the pros and cons of the two sources in a perspective of evaluating NVD performance in a controlled environment emulating different representative night sky irradiances in support of military and law enforcement operations.

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Citation Download Citation

N. Roy, S. Potvin, A. Martel, M. Dupuis, J.-C. Bouchard, and A. Grégoire "Is LED technology suitable to replace a tungsten filament lamp for night vision devices and I2 tubes testing?", Proc. SPIE 13045, Infrared Imaging Systems: Design, Analysis, Modeling, and Testing XXXV, 130450U (7 June 2024); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.3018028

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