Digital shutter control for bright flash recover in night vision equipment

A night vision device, comprising:

• a light intensifier having a photocathode, a microchannel plate, and an anode having a phosphor layer;
• a power supply;
• and
• a processor, incorporated in the power supply, and configured to:
• enable an automatic brightness control procedure for the light intensifier, the automatic brightness control (ABC) procedure automatically selecting a voltage to be applied to the photocathode responsive to light input to the photocathode;
• sense current being drawn by the anode;
• in response to the current being drawn by the anode exceeding a predetermined threshold, shut down the photocathode, disable the ABC procedure, and store, as a stored voltage value, a value of a voltage that had been selected by the ABC procedure when the current exceeded the predetermined threshold;
• after a first predetermined period of time, apply a voltage to the photocathode in accordance with the stored voltage value;
• and
• re-enable the ABC procedure and select the stored voltage value as the voltage to be applied to the photocathode.

A power supply for an image intensifier of a night vision device, the power supply comprising:

• a battery;
• a memory;
• and
• a processor,
• wherein the processor is configured to:
• in response to current drawn by an anode of the image intensifier, turn off a switch via which a voltage is supplied to a photocathode of the image intensifier;
• store, as a stored voltage value, a value of the voltage in the memory;
• after a first predetermined period of time, turn on the switch and re-apply a voltage to the photocathode in accordance with the stored voltage value;
• and
• enable an automatic brightness control procedure using the stored voltage value.