Performance benefits of sub-diffraction sized pixels in imaging sensors

Abstract

Infrared Focal Plane Arrays have been developed with reductions in pixel size below the Nyquist limit imposed by the optical systems Point Spread Function (PSF). These smaller sub diffraction limited pixels allows spatial oversampling of the image. We show that oversampling the PSF allows improved fidelity in imaging, resulting in sensitivity improvements due to pixel correlation, reduced false alarm rates, improved detection ranges, and an improved ability to track closely spaced objects.