Detector

A passive IR, visible, UV detector turns photons into an electrical signal. The IFOV of the detector is its solid angular sub-tense. There is sometimes confusion between the detector sub-tense (size) and the pixel (picture element size). They are the same for a staring sensor, but in a scanner it depends on the array offset and number of samples per dwell. A pixel area is often only onesixth or one-eighth of a detector angular area. 79

A device that is responsive to the presence or absence of a stimulus. 2. In an AM radio receiver, a circuit or device that recovers the signal of interest from the modulated wave. Note: In FM reception, a circuit called a discriminator is used to convert frequency variations to amplitude variations. 3. In an optical communications receiver, a device that converts the received optical signal to another form. Note: Currently, this conversion is from optical to electrical power; however, optical-to-optical techniques are under development.