High Performance Readout Electronics For BMDO Infrared Sensors

This proposal responds to the solicitation BMDO 98-008 on Survivability Technology where it states that a key ballistic defense area is sensor subsystems, the components of which (focal plane arrays, readout electronics, and preprocessing) must survive the laser, nuclear, IR, and natural environments. The trend in microelectronics and photonics devices is toward higher levels of integration density, higher speeds, higher circuit complexity, lower voltage and power, and larger die size and radiation tolerance. This project proposes to develop radiation tolerant readout electronics for BMDO infrared sensors using gallium arsenide (GaAs) complementary heterostructure field effect transistor (CHFET) technology. The main advantages of GaAs CHFET readout electronics are high speed, low power, high radiation resistance, and low temperature operation. The objective of this project is to develop complementary heterostructure field effect transistor (CHFET) readout electronics for BMDO infrared focal plane arrays. The technical objectives of Phase I project are to develop: a) Specifications, b) Multiplexer architecture and c) Readout circuits.