The Infrared System

William L. Wolfe

The literature abounds with equations and data that pertain to infrared system design. Comparatively little has been written about the process of the design, however.

Infrared system design is not a synthetic process, as is some circuit design. You cannot start with the statement of the problem and proceed in an orderly fashion to one final solution. Rather, we "guess" a solution and explore its applicability and capability. Infrared system design is an iterative process. The iteration goes faster, of course, if the first guess is a good one. The quality of that first guess is a function of insight and experience, and insight comes largely from experience...