A MULTIPLE-OUTPUT SI/GAAS HYBRID IMAGING DEVICE FOR VERY HIGH FRAME-RATE APPLICATIONS

CONVENTIONAL HIGH-SPEED IMGAGE-RECORDING SYSTEMS ARE TYPICALLY BASED ON STROBOSCOPIC AND/OR HIGH-SPEED FILM METHODOLOGIES. THESE APPROACHES SUFFER FROM THE USE OF FILM AS A RECORDING MEDIUM, REDUCING SYSTEM FLEXIBILITY AND ELIMINATING REAL-TIME EVALUATION OF IMAGE DATA. FURTHERMORE, CONVENTIONAL ELECTRONIC IMAGING SYSTEMS DO NOT POSSESS HIGH FRAME-RATE CAPABILITIES. Q-DOT PROPOSES A HYBRID SI/GAAS ELECTRONIC IMAGING DEVICE CAPABLE OF OBTAINING MORE THAN ONE THOUSAND IMAGES PER SECOND. THE DEVICE CONSISTS OF A SILICON PERISTALTIC CHARGE-COUPLED DEVICE IMAGING ARRAY WITH GAAS FIELD-EFFECT TRANSISTORS BUMP MOUNTED FOR USE AS OUTPUT STRUCTURES. THE PROPOSED IMAGER HAS INHERENT OPTICAL SHUTTERING AND UTILIZES A PARALLEDL OUTPUT DATA ARRANGEMENT. FOR AN ARRAY FORMAT OF 512 X 512 PIXELS WITH 8 PARALLEL OUTPUT CHANNELS, THE PROPOSED IMAGER CAN GATHER AND OUTPUT MORE THAN 1250 IMAGES PER SECOND AT A 50 MEGAPIXEL/SECOND/CHANNEL OUTPUT RATE, WITH A DYNAMIC RANGE OF GREATER THAN 500 TO 1. SUBSTANTIALLY HIGHER FRAME RATES ARE POSSIBLE THROUGH THE USE OF ADDITIONAL OUTPUT CHANNELS AND HIGHER OUTPUT DATA RATES.