In conventional IRST systems, hot targets are periodically searched in a wide field of view cold background and any threats identified are then tracked using very narrow field of view windows. This sequential and discontinuous search-now track-later, track-now search-later operation is effective only for relatively fixed background scenes with very few threats. In the proposed ROIC pixel array for advanced IRST, individual pixels communicate potential threats locally in a swarm intelligent manner to accomplish simultaneous and continuous search and track globally across the entire field of view. This search-now track-now operation of the swarm intelligent ROIC pixel array for advanced IRST is demonstrated using simulations and processed imagery.
Indium gallium arsenide and colloidal quantum dot SWIR sensors can produce stronger contrast imagery than their visible counterparts due to the reduced scattering in the SWIR band. A 640 x 512 format, 10 μm pixel pitch low-noise highsensitivity DROIC, with a capacitive transimpedance amplifier pixel front end, for SWIR imaging is presented. This DROIC has variable gain pixels with well capacities of approximately 22 ke- in high gain, 160 ke- in mid gain and 1.1 Me- in low gain. The readout boasts a low read noise of only 15 e- rms at room temperature in high gain with correlated double sampling. This DROIC can run at 700 fps full frame and 8.9 kfps for 32 x 32 window.
KEYWORDS: High dynamic range imaging, Long wavelength infrared, Infrared imaging, Readout integrated circuits, Digital electronics, Analog to digital converters
Digital pixels enable the disassociation of well capacity with noise floor. This allows for better sensitivity for small signals and significantly increased well capacity for large signals. A 640 x 512 format, 20 μm pixel pitch digital pixel readout integrated circuit (DPROIC) for high dynamic range infrared imaging is presented. The architecture uses an extended counting approach that is optimized for low power consumption. This DPROIC boasts a programmable well capacity of 40 Me- in high gain (HG) and >400 Me- in low gain (LG) with no rollover. Read noise is 50 e- rms, HG, and 330 e- rms, LG, for integrate-then-read and 85 e- rms, HG, and 700 e- rms, LG, for integrate-while-read at 80 K. This readout, with LWIR SLS detectors, achieves single digit millikelvin noise-equivalent temperature difference.
Intra-frame high dynamic range (HDR) infrared imaging is accomplished in a 1280 x 720 format, 8 um pixel pitch digital readout integrated circuit (DROIC) by spatially combining neighboring pixels with different integration times to obtain HDR pixels. Intra-frame HDR imaging achieves the same level of dynamic range improvement as traditional inter-frame HDR imaging without compromising temporal resolution. Proximal interpolation to retain the spatial resolution of the HDR infrared frame, tone mapping to effectively display HDR infrared content on limited dynamic range displays, and pseudo-coloring to better visualize HDR infrared imagery are discussed.
High performance infrared focal plane arrays (FPAs) play a critical role in a wide range of imaging applications. However the high cost associated with the required cooling and serially processed die-level hybridization is major barrier that has thwarted Mid-wavelength Infrared (MWIR) detector technology from penetrating largevolume, low-cost markets. Under the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) WIRED program, the HRL team has developed a wafer level integration schemes to fabricate large format Antimonidebased MWIR FPAs on Si Read Out Integrated Circuit (ROIC) as a means to achieve significant fab cost reduction and enhanced production scalability. The DARPA-hard challenge we are addressing is the thermal and stress management in the integration of two dissimilar materials to avoid detector and ROIC degradation and to maintain structure integrity at the wafer scale. In addition, a digital ROIC with extremely large well capacity was designed and taped-out, in order to increase the operating temperature of the FPAs. In this talk, we discuss our progress under the DARPA WIRED program.
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