Digital Readout Infrared Focal Plane Array

Dual band infrared sensors are important components for future ballistic missile defense systems. Digital readout integrated circuits (DROICs), compared to analog ROIC architectures, allow on-chip processing, increased dynamic range and increased signal to noise ratio. Deep submicron CMOS provides low power digital circuitry with system noise immunity, and when combined with radiation hardening by design (RHBD) circuits, provides robust operation in the ballistic missile defense environment. On Phase I, Black Forest Engineering proposes to develop dual band 640x480 format DROIC circuitry with a 20µm pixel pitch that achieves more than equivalent well capacity of 50 million electrons, read noise less than 200 electrons, full frame rate of 240 Hz at two-bands, and power consumption less than 200 mW. The DROIC design will be compatible with existing dual band sequential HgCdTe detector arrays for demonstration of a DROIC-enabled focal plane array (FPA) on Phase II.