Patent ID: 9335218
Filing Date: 2016-05-10
CPC Classification: G01J

Claim Text:
1. A digital bolometer, comprising: a thermal sink; a plurality of pixels configured to detect an image of a scene, each said pixel comprising an absorptive element configured to absorb radiation from the scene, a thermal isolator connecting said absorptive element to said thermal sink, and a thermally sensitive optical phase shifter configured to phase shift a coherent measurement beam based on the temperature of the absorptive element; and an interferometric temperature measurement device configured to optically route the coherent measurement beam to and from the thermally sensitive optical phase shifter in each said pixel, mix a coherent reference beam with the phase shifted coherent measurement beam from each said pixel to detect a relative phase, and to accumulate the relative phase for each said pixel over a specified integration time as a measure of photon radiation.