The development and design of LAPAN's IR camera equipped with micro bolometer sensor

It has been two years we have designed and developed an Infrared camera equipped with micro bolometer sensor. The overall mission of the IR camera addresses Earth observations mainly natural consequences and human effect in the environment. Specifically our IR camera will detect and monitor high temperature due to Indonesia's peat fires and volcano activities. Meanwhile, the micro bolometer has been chosen since it is suitable for micro satellite as our office, LAPAN, next satellite. By combining amongst the whole optical design and electrical design, the process development of LAPAN's IR camera has been built. However, we determined the requirements first based on the missions. In order to strengthen the design result, calibration process has been applied before the final development. Moreover, we adjusted iteration approach throughout the development process. Our result represented by figures and order magnitude shows that the performance of LAPAN's IR camera equipped with micro bolometer sensor is as expected. The optical design performance of it is good enough because the diffraction limited is almost achieved and the image blur is still in pixel size range. The unity of mechanical and thermal design results passive system including passive athermalization to make our design in accordance with the requirements. In meantime, initial electronic design gives the suitability between its control and camera sensor. Furthermore, a calibration step was utilized only to strengthen the outcome.