Improving light efficiency in multispectral imaging via complementary notch filters

We propose a novel multispectral imaging technique employing complementary notch filters instead of bandpass filters which are conventionally used in filter-based multispectral cameras. Therefore, only little power of the incoming photon signal is lost and thus the SNR of the multispectral data can be significantly improved. To validate the proposed approach, simulations of conventional bandpass filters as well as complementary notch filters are presented. To compare the resulting SNRs, the EMVA 1288 standard is adopted in such a way that it is applicable to notch filter-based multispectral cameras. It is found that the SNR can be significantly improved by using complementary filters instead of the conventional bandpass filters, especially at high spectral resolution.