The Fresnel imager: instrument numerical model

The methodology used in the end-to-end numerical model of the Fresnel Interferometric Imager is presented. This Instrument Numerical Model (INM) performs plane-to-plane Fresnel propagation, starting from the Fresnel array and ending at the achromatic focal plane, and has been written in c so that it can handle various instrument configurations (sizes of Fresnel arrays from cm to m, from a few Fresnel zones to a few hundred, and for various wavelengths) with a standard desktop computer (a few GHz processor(s) speed, a few GB of memory, execution time per wavelength spanning from few minutes to few hours in the most extreme cases). The INM is used to estimate the performances of the Fresnel Imager: angular resolution, photometric dynamic range, transmission, for on and off-axis sources.