Choice of either small or large detector arrays

1 Choice of either small or large detector arrays 

We have utilized a performance metric that is suitable for comparing the imaging performance for large spatial areas of two different systems. The figure of merit we employ is the number of pixels per minute (pixpm) that can be recorded for specified data quality (SNR of absorbance spectra) at defined spectral and spatial resolution, apodization and wavelength bandpass. Since the SNR of recorded data can be anticipated to scale with the data acquisition time (as V ), the adjustment allows for easy comparisons of detectors with different sizes and performance. Consider the comparison between two detectors in terms of the ratio of their pixpm output as 

The comparison in the future will likely be determined by the need to distribute source intensity for larger arrays compared with the need to raster scan for small array detectors. 

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