FI98777C - CCD element control arrangement - Google Patents

Description

98777;

CCD ELEMENT CONTROL ARRANGEMENT - STYRARRANGEMANG VID ETT CCD ELEMENT

The invention relates to control electronics of a CCD element, comprising a CCD element and a sequencer controlling it.

There are a large number of different CCD element applications available on the market, one example of which is the use of CCD elements in imaging spectroscopy camera applications. One such area is remote sensing from an aircraft as well as various measurements related to the state of the environment.

A line view of the terrain is taken from the terrain 15 transversely to the direction of flight, which corresponds to the so-called spatial or spatial information. When an airplane flies, for example, at an altitude of 1 km, each pixel corresponds to an area of l m x l m in the terrain. The image is decomposed by spectrograph into a wavelength spectrum.

The 20 CCD elements consist of a number of semiconductor detectors. The detectors in this application are arranged in a matrix format. The CCD element is controlled by a sequencer

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la. The application requires short image integration times and thus reading the CCD element very quickly. Versatile modes of operation are also required for Toi-25.

The matrix-shaped CCD element contains a large amount of data, e.g. 384x288 pixels. Feel -: / · <. The control arrangements of the CCD elements have each pixel A / D convertible, which results in an increase in the amount of data to be stored and requires data compression.

♦ · · V 'It must be possible to collect images in real time. The problem with the previously known devices is that with the high pixel frequency used, the control of the sequencer 35 cannot be implemented in the conventional way.

The object of the invention is to eliminate the above 2 98777; mentioned drawbacks of known solutions.

In particular, it is an object of the invention to provide a new type of CCD element control arrangement which enables the selection of A / D-converted data by means of hardware.

It is a further object of the invention to provide a device which is particularly well suited for remote sensing from an aircraft, for measuring the state of the environment and for high-speed industrial applications.

The device according to the invention is characterized in that at least one buffer element of the FIFO type is connected to the sequencer, to which element the control instructions of the sequencer are input.

According to the invention, the device can be implemented with preferred components. The solution according to the invention is flexible. According to the invention, the structure controlling the front of the instrument, (e.g. a microcontroller) does not have to be fast and does not participate all the time in sequence control, but only in maintaining the integration timer 20 and in diagnosing faults.

The advantage of the invention is that with the implementation according to the invention, the flexibility of the equipment required in the applications and sufficient speed can be realized using low-cost components. A further advantage of the invention is that, for example, a reasonably slow controller of the microcontroller type, which receives control commands, e.g. the serial bus ·% · · <: *, is sufficient for loading the control sequences. through.

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Furthermore, thanks to the invention, it is possible to compress the image of the CCD camera preliminarily by means of hardware, by selecting the desired pixels to be converted to A / D conversion.

«V” · / *: In one application of the control electronics of the CCD element according to the invention, at least one buffer element of the FIFO type is connected to the sequencer controlling the CCD element. Sequencer control instructions are fed to a FIFO-type buffer element, giving 98777 '3 flexibility and versatility.

In one application of the control electronics of the CCD element according to the invention, there are two buffer elements. Feedback from the sequencer is provided in each buffer element. Furthermore, the first buffer element receives information about the state of the sequencer via feedback.

In one embodiment of the control electronics of the CCD element according to the invention, the first buffer element 10 is used to control the status information and the bandwidth of the spectral channel with a sequencer. The status information is input with e.g. three bits and the bandwidth of the spectral channel is controlled with e.g. three bits.

In one application of the control electronics of the CCD element according to the invention, the peripheral logic is controlled by the second buffer element.

In one application of the control electronics of the CCD element according to the invention, the clocking of the buffer element takes place in synchronization with the row clock of the sequencer detector.

In one embodiment of the control element of the CCD element according to the invention, the second buffer element controls the A / D conversion of the internal pixels of the spectral channel in binary. If necessary, the binary conversion information can be bypassed from the control logic. The buffer element is clocked M * t. synchronized with the sequencer pixel clock.

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One application of the control electronics of the CCD element according to the invention comprises a control structure, such as a microcontroller. The microcontroller is used to load V 'buffer elements and to maintain the integration time • »I * *:? Y; keeping. Furthermore, the microcontroller loads both buffer elements and starts the operation of the sequencer.

In one application of the control electronics of the CCD element according to the invention with a microcontroller 98777 '.

4 monitor the operation of the sequencer.

The invention will now be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawing, in which Figure 1 shows 5 line images taken by an on-board camera and a spectrographically scattered spectral image thereof, and Figure 2 shows a CCD element circuit according to the present invention in block diagram form.

Figure 1 shows a line image of an aircraft 10 scattered by a spectrograph into a spectral image. The horizontal image with respect to the direction of flight is divided into 384 image portions to obtain spatial information. Each image part is decomposed by a spectrograph into 288 parts, i.e. a channel, to obtain spectral information. 15 Em. With the device according to an embodiment of the invention, it is possible to process the image scattered in this way in four different operating modes. Examples of modes of operation are: -full spectral or full spatial information, with all pixels of the CCD element in use, -full spatial information in selected wavelength bands, -full spectral information at evenly spaced viewing angles 25 (47); -selectable wavelength bands with additional • «♦ .. *« ·· si desired viewing angles from other lines.

♦ M · This requires that the steering structure is capable of high speed and also flexibility.

.. 30 Figure 2 shows an application of the control electronics of a CCD element according to the invention, which • · · V 'comprises two FIFO type (First In, First Out) buffer elements. is based on the basic idea of using a CCD element in which: 35 is both an image and a memory area, while reading the previous image from the memory area, a new image can be integrated into the image area.The same application is suitable as a 98777 '.

5 also for CCD elements with only the image area. In this case, only the codes loaded into the buffer elements are different.

The first buffer element (state pictogram) 4 5 contains information about the state of the sequencer 3, the bandwidth of the selected wavelength and three-bit control information about whether it is a spectral line (line of the CCD element to be converted), sequence restart (new image) or wait state (integration timer 10 is expected). The second buffer element 5 is loaded with binary information about which pixels are digitized within each spectral row. This information is used to select both the viewing angles and the internal information of the selected spectral line. The control sequences 15 are loaded into the buffer elements by a control structure 7, such as a microcontroller. The microcontroller is controlled, for example, by a microcomputer (not shown in the figure), e.g. via a serial bus. Incoming instructions are decompressed into sequences that are loaded into buffer elements. After this, sequencing is started and the sequencer itself takes care of the necessary information about the clocking for itself.

The control structure, such as a microcontroller, maintains the integration time and monitors the success of the sequencing based on the monitoring between the integration time completion and the frame-25 calculation information.

... Within each picture frame, the pulses of the line drop · 1 «disc are calculated, on the basis of which the success of the operation V: fi is deduced. If the frame count data has not arrived before the integration time has elapsed, it is either; 3 0 Sequencing logic error or selected too short • 1 · integration time. Based on this, the adequacy of the integration time for the selected sequence is inferred.

: The invention is not limited to the application examples presented above, but many modifications are possible while remaining within the scope of the inventive idea defined by the claims.

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Claims (10)

1. The control electronics (1) of the CCD element, to which a CCD element (2), the same controlling sequence (3) and two buffer elements (4, 5), 2. The control electronics of the CCD element according to claim 1, characterized in that a buffer coupling from the sequence is provided for the buffer elements. The CCD element's control electronics according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that the first buffer element (4) receives information about the state of the sequences via the ether coupling. A CCD element control electronics according to any of claims 1 to 3, characterized in that the clock element's clock is synchronized with; the sequence detector row clock. 5. The CCD element control electronics according to any one of claims 1 to 4, characterized in that the second buffer element is arranged to control ι% · in the spectral channel's internal space pixel A / D transformation. «M · The CCD element's control electronics according to any of claims 1 to 5, characterized in, that the clock element of the buf vert element is synchronized with the pixel clock of the sequence. T% *% * 7. The control electronics of the CCD element according to some of the claims 1 to 6, characterized in that the control electronics of the CCD element belong to a control structure, such as a microcontroller (7), which is arranged in the charge of the buffer elements. . 98777 '. FIFO type and which are coupled to the sequence, to which the sequencing control order is measured, characterized in that the first buffer element (4) is arranged in the control of state data and / or a spectral channel bandwidth with the aid of the sequencer; and that the second buffer element (5) is arranged to control the peripheral logic (6). The CCD element control electronics according to any of claims 1 to 7, characterized in that the controlling structure, such as the microcontroller, is arranged to maintain the integration time. 9. The control electronics of the CCD element according to any of claims 1 to 8, characterized in that the controlling structure, such as the microcontroller, is arranged to charge both buffer elements for the start of the sequence function and to start the sequence function. 10. The control electronics of the CCD element according to any one of claims 1 to 9, characterized in that the controlling structure, such as the microcontroller, is arranged to control the function of the sequence. % · · «Ri ': ·· i · ♦ 1 2 3 4 · • ·« I I I • · • • • I • ·. t t V •, «.I 2 • · · 3 V1: 4» 1 »