Research on performance evaluation and optimization theory for thermal microscope imaging systems

Infrared imaging theory is an important theoretical basis for the design of infrared imaging systems, but there is no research on infrared imaging theory for designing thermal microscope imaging systems. Therefore, we studied the performance evaluation and optimization theory of thermal microscope imaging systems. In this paper, we analyzed the difference in spectral radiant flux between thermal microscope imaging and telephoto thermal imaging. The expression of signal-to-noise ratio of the output image of the thermal microscope imaging systems was derived, based on the analysis of the characteristics of thermal microscope imaging. We studied the performance evaluation model of thermal microscope imaging systems based on the minimum resolvable temperature difference and the minimum detectable temperature difference. Simulation and analysis of different detectors (ideal photon detector and ideal thermal detector) were also carried out. Finally, based on the conclusion of theoretical research, we carried out a system design and image acquisition experiment. The results show that the theoretical study of thermal microscope imaging systems in this paper can provide reference for the performance evaluation and optimization of thermal microscope imaging systems.