Large Format Uncooled Focal Plane Array

Uncooled focal plane arrays have improved dramatically and array sizes of 320x240 elements in a 50-?m pitch are commercially available at affordable cost. Black Forest Engineering proposes to design a readout integrated circuit to allow fabrication of a large format 1024x768 element uncooled sensor. The significant innovation is the use of 0.18 ?m CMOS design rules, high duty cycle signal sampling, and power reduction techniques to create a thermal sensor that provides high sensitivity readout of large format microbolometer detection elements sensitive to 8-14 ?m infrared. The thermal IR sensor will be low weight, small volume, low power and robust making it compatible with remote sensing applications such as aircraft, balloon-borne and space flight platforms