STACKED HIGH TEMPERATURE SUPERCONDUCTING ELECTRONIC FOR IR FOCAL PLANE SIGNAL PROCESSING

IRVINE SENSORS CORPORATION (ISC), SUPPORTED BY TRW, PROPOSED TO UTILIZE THE ELECTRONICS REAL ESTATE AFFORDED BY THE ISC HYMOSS FOCAL MODULE AND THE TRW SUPERCONDUCING JOSEPHSON-JUNCTION (J2) TECHNOLOGY TO DEVELOP A NEW AND POWERFUL IR ON-FOCAL PLANE SIGNAL PROCESSING CABABILITY. ISC HAS DEVELOPED THE HYMOSS MODULE TO READ OUT AND PROCESS SIGNALS FROM 128 X 128 TWO-DIMENSIONAL ARRAYS OF IR DETECTORS. OVER A SQUARE MILLIMETER OF ELECTRONICS AREA PER DETECTOR IS AVAILABLE FOR PROCESSING. TRW HAS BEEN THE LEADING GROUP DEVELOPING LOW POWER, HIGH PERFORMANCE CIRCUITS APPROPRIATE FOR LWIR FOCAL PLANE PROCESSING USING BOTH NIOBIUM AT 4 DEG KELVIN AND NEW HIGHER TEMPERATURE SUPERCONDUCTORS WILL EXTEND THE CAPABILITY TO AT LEAST 60-80 DEG KELVIN MAKING IT MORE SUITABLE FOR TACTICAL APPLICATIONS AND NIOBIUM NITRIDE AT 10 DEG KELVIN. OF PARTICULAR INTEREST IS TRW'S DEMONSTRATED SUPERCONDUCTING ANALOG-TO-DIGITAL CONVERTER CAPABLE OF 13 BIT RESOLUTION AND 10> WORDS PER SECOND AT LESS THAN 10 MICROWATTS POWER DISSIPATION. THEREFORE, ISC AND TRW PROPOSE TO MARRY THEIR TECHNOLOGIES TO PRODUCE HIGH PERFORMANCE LWIR FOCAL PLANE SIGNAL PROCESSING. PHASE I WILL ADDRESS ELECTRONICS CONFIGURATION TRADES AND CONCEPT DESIGN; PHASE II WILL BE AN EXPERIMENTAL PROGRAM TO DEVELOP HIGH TEMPERATURE SUPERCONDUCTOR DEVICES COMPATIBLE WITH HYMOSS STACKING TECHNOLOGY.