Abstract
The method of increasing signal to noise ratio (SNR) in a Hadamard transform spectrometer (HTS) is multiplexing. The multiplexing is executed by a mask. Conventional masks are mechanical or electro-optical. A mechanical mask has disadvantages of jamming and misalignment. A stationary electro-optical mask has a disadvantage of information losses caused by spacers which partition mask elements. In this paper, a mixed-concept electro-optical mask (MCEOM) is developed by expanding the length of a spacer to that of lon-off mask element. An MCEOM is operated by stepping a movable mask. 2N measurements are required for N spectrum estimates. The average mean square error (AMSE) using MCEQM is equal to that using a stationary electro-optical mask without spacers for large N. The cost of manufacturing an MCEOM is lower than that of producing a conventional electro-optical mask because an MCEOM needs only (N + 1)/2 on-off mask elements whereas the con¬ventional electro-optical mask needs N on-off mask elements. There are no information losses in the spectrometers having an MCEOM.