FPGA-based Electron Multiplying CCD Imaging System Design

The technology of night-vision imaging and detection has been an important research direction of military investigative technology for a long time. In a low-light battlefield environment, identifying the target quickly is directly related to the military’s ability to survive. Because the electron multiply CCD is solid-state and can operate anytime, many country’s military focus on the LLL night vision technology. Low-light military equipment based on electron multiply CCD is highly reliable, easy to system integration and digitization and can achieve a large dynamic range with an adaptive voltage multiplier. Because of these preponderances, the research of such a low-light military equipment has become very popular in many countries.According to the drive signal requirement and the output signal characteristics of an electron multiplying CCD device which is designed and manufactured by ourselves, this paper will talk about how to use this device to design a reliable, low noise and stable imaging system. Firstly, we design a new driving circuit to optimize the quality of the drive signal and reduce the system power dissipation. Secondly, we design a new power circuit to match the system power requirement as well as minimize the system power disspation. Thirdly, we use the programmable logic device FPGA to generate the driving pulse, acquire the data and process the data. This part also provides the interface for SDRAM which can be used to realize on-line image processing as well as system integration and digitization. According to the experiments, this imaging system can achieve real-time image under10-3～103lx illumination. Even in a low-light situation, the output image is still stable, clear and can meet the application requirement in a low illumination environment.