STACKED SUPERCONDUCTING ELECTRONICS FOR INFRARED FOCAL PLANE SIGNAL PROCESSING

THE FEASIBILITY IS BEING INVESTIGATED OF DEVELOPING AN INFRARED (IR) ON-FOCAL PLANE SIGNAL PROCESSING CAPABILITY BY COMBINING ELECTRONIC REAL ESTATE AFFORDED BY A PROPRIETARY 128 CHANNEL INTEGRATED CIRCUIT FOCAL PLANE MOSAIC ARRAY ASSEMBLY MODULE AND THE SUPERCONDUCTING JOSEPHSON-JUNCTION TECHNOLOGY. THE MODULE HAS BEEN DEVELOPED TO READ OUT AND PROCESS SIGNALS FROM 128 X 128 TWO-DIMENSIONAL ARRAYS OF IR DETECTORS. LOW POWER, HIGH PERFORMANCE CIRCUITS HAVE BEEN DEVELOPED FOR LONG WAVELENGTH INFRARED (LWIR) FOCAL PLANE PROCESSING USING NIOBIUM AT 4 DEGREES KELVIN. NEW HIGHER TEMPERATURE SUPERCONDUCTORS ARE ANTICIPATED TO EXTEND THIS CAPABILITY TO AT LEAST 60 DEGREES KELVIN. OF PARTICULAR INTEREST IS A DEMONSTRATED PROPRIETARY SUPERCONDUCTING ANALOG-DIGITAL CONVERTER CAPABLE OF 13 BIT RESOLUTION AND 10E7 WORDS PER SECOND AT LESS THAN 10 MICROWATTS POWER DISSIPATION. IN ORDER TO PRODUCE HIGH PERFORMANCE LWIR FOCAL PLANE SIGNAL PROCESSING, THIS EFFORT IS ADDRESSING ELECTRONICS CONFIGURATION TRADES AND CONCEPT DESIGN. A COMPATIBLE INTEGRATED CIRCUIT WOULD BE BUILD AND TESTED IN A LATER PHASE. SUCCESSFUL DEMONSTRATION AT 10 DEGREE KELVIN WOULD LEAD THE WAY TO AN FPA SIGNAL PROCESSING MODULE WHICH COULD PERFORM MOST OF THE FUNCTIONS DESIRED FOR ADVANCED SENSORS FOR SPACE AND GROUND-BASED SURVEILLANCE AND TRACKING SYSTEMS, INCLUDING PRE-AMPLIFICATION, BANDPASS FILTERING, GAMMA EVENT CIRCUMVENTION, TIME DELAY AND INTEGRATION, DIGITIZATION, THRESHOLDING, AND BUFFERING.