Measure of the influence of detector noise on temperature-measurement accuracy for multiband infrared systems.

The noise-equivalent temperature difference is a measure of the detector-noise-limited sensitivity of single-band IR systems for noncontact temperature measurement. However, because its definition is based on the signal-to-noise ratio in a single detector channel, the notion of noise-equivalent temperature difference must be generalized in case of dual-band or multiband IR systems. A new measure of temperature-measurement sensitivity is proposed that can be used to describe single-band, dual-band, and multiband IR measurement systems. With this measure a comparison of temperature-measurement accuracy among single-band, dual-band, and multiband systems was carried out.