Advanced Readout Development for High Performance Corrugated Quantum Well Infrared Photoconductors Technology

Black Forest Engineering (BFE) has developed readout integrated circuit (ROIC) methods that provide large charge integration capability in a small pixel pitch. Small pixel pitch allows high image resolution and large image formats with significant reduction in optics size and weight. The large charge integration capacity is ideally suited for corrugated quantum well infrared photoconductor (C-QWIP) detectors. The BFE large charge capability results from in-pixel dark current pedestal subtraction and switched capacitor signal integration. On Phase I, BFE demonstrated by design and analysis pixel circuit modifications to provide low 1/f noise signal extraction compatible with LWIR C-QWIP detector operation at cryogenic temperatures. The readout pixel circuitry was designed in a 15 m pixel pitch. On Phase II, this new pixel circuitry will be demonstrated in a large format ROIC and hybridized to C-QWIP detector arrays. The Phase II ROIC design architecture will have on-chip low-power ADC and high-speed digital serializer to support array size of =2Kx2K at 60 Hz frame rates.