First Test Results obtained with the MBB Experimental 
   
  
Opto-electronic Camera 
  
De. 
Ing.O.Hofmann 
Messerschmitt Bôlkow Blohm GmbH, München 
Dipl.Phys.P.Seige 
Deutsche Forschungs- und Versuehsanstalt für Luft- und Raumfahrt, 
Oberpfaffenhofen bei München 
te 
Introduction 
Since the beginning of the seventies, MBB and the DFVLR (German 
Aerospace Research Center) have been working on the development of 
a fully electronic multispectral camera destined for aerial photo- 
graphs and satellite pictures for purposes of remote sensing. Tests 
carried out, using camera tubes, did not solve this problem in a very 
satisfactory way. On the other hand, better results were obtained on 
using self-scanning, high-resolution photo semiconductor sensors. In 
1974, MBB provided own funding so that research work could be started 
in this domain. Later, these activities were promoted by the DFVLR and 
the Federal Ministry of Research and Technology. MBB developed an ex- 
perimental airworthy electro-optical scanner, known as EOS, and tested 
it jointly with the DFVLR, Oberpfaffenhofen. 
. Working Principle 
The working principle of the EOS is very simple: a photo-sensitive 
sensor containing a great number of extremely small and discrete semi- 
conductor sensors arranged in one line is permanently exposed via a 
constantly open lens (Fig. 1). Electrical charges build up in the 
individual sensors as a linear function of the incident radiation and 
the exposure time. These charges are transmitted in parallel to a 
memory register at regular intervals from where they are read out in