Image acquisition design of the AOTF imaging spectrometer based on SOPC

AOTF (Acousto-Optic Tunable Filter) imaging spectrometer is used for hyperspectral imaging. Due to the improvement of AOTF imaging spectral technique, the image acquisition task suited to AOTF faces stricter requirement. The image acquisition system not only has the ability of images collection but also has the ability of portable lightweight, high-speed electronic tunable, low power consumption and reconfigures processing to match the wide application. Thus, in this paper, a novel embedded architecture based on SOPC (System-On-Programmable-Chip) dedicated to image acquisition is presented, which adopting FPGA with a processor core that has advantages of accelerating image acquisition and processing. Comparing to computer-based or microcontroller-based system, this proposed system has the better characteristics of high-integrated, flexibility, and low power consumption. Also, it has other properties that using parallel cameralink interfaces for image readout, USB 2.0 and SpaceWire interfaces as two output ports to extend application field. A smart synchronous mechanism is realized for wavelengths tuned rapidly with high-precision DDS. As a result, the total acquisition time is approximate 40s. Also, experimental evaluation demonstrates significant system efficiency and validity.