Suppression of pedestal noise in a pyroelectric vidicon

A technique for suppressing pedestal noise and nonuniformities in a pyroelectric vidicon (PEV) is described. Demonstration of this method has been accomplished in a reduced frame rate/reduced line rate system. The minimum resolvable temperatures obtained with this noise-suppressed system are better by a factor of 3 to 4 than those obtained with a standard chop-mode PEV system.