Standards quality irradiance meters have been developed at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) to realize a detector based spectral irradiance scale. The design criteria and the optical and radiometric characterization of diffuser-input irradiance meters are discussed. The input geometry optimization is described for a broad-band InGaAs irradiance meter when measuring a 2856 K incandescent light source. The directional responsivity of the fabricated InGaAs and Si irradiance meters matches the cosine function with a maximum deviation of 0.15 % within a 12 degrees field-of-view (FOV). Irradiance from sources of different sizes (incident beams with different f/numbers) can be measured over a wavelength range of 350 nm to 1800 nm.