All Digital High Speed Visible Imaging Array

"Amain proposes to develop a large staring array monolithic visible light camera with extremely low power analog to digital conversion, A/D, at each pixel. The approach is based on oversample A/D techniques developed for audio applications, generally knownin the industry as delta sigma A/D. Each pixel of the focal plane array will contain a patented converter named MOSAD, Multiplexed OverSample A/D. The study will focus on requirements for building a 4096X3072 array of pixel photo sensors with MOSADconverters. Ultimately the array will be designed to work at 1,000 frame/second sample rate. Data volume issues will be addressed in the initial study phase. In addition, a systolic array processor approach will be developed as a high speed parallelprocessor for image data rate reduction. Large focal plane arrays operating at high sample rates present a problem for conventional readout techniques due to the wide noise bandwidth and the power consumption. The MOSAD approach reduces noise bandwidth atthe pixel to data bandwidth. It also allows substantial power savings because of the lower noise amplitude and thus lower signal switching voltages. Applications for cost effective large array cameras exist in the consumer, commercial and military sectors.Broadcast HDTV cameras, electronic 35 millimeter cameras in the consumer area represent a substantial market potential. Surveillance, mapping and resource monitoring are a few of the application