Under the DARPA WIRED program, DRS advanced CQD film detectors, deposited by spin-coating from solution directly on readout integrated circuit (ROIC) wafers at room temperature. Such CQD fabrication can produce very small pixel pitch photodiode detectors, which need ROICs with proportionally small pixel pitch readout arrays fabricated on wafers in fully compatible CMOS process. CQD fabrication allows for very large format FPAs, limited only by the ROIC size. This paper presents CMOS ROIC detailed design ready for tapeout of a 3 μm pitch 1920 x 1080 fully optimized for low power and noise in battery powered portable applications. Although the ROIC was designed for CQD detector photodiodes, it could also be used with other 3 μm pitch IR detectors, such as the InGaAs type. Capacitive trans-impedance amplifier (CTIA) pixel was designed using ITAR-compliant 0.13 μm CMOS process. This particular 0.13 μm CMOS process was selected for CTIA pixel due to compact metal design rules for 3 μm pitch, high Gm, low FET noise and availability of high-density metal-insulator-metal (MIM) capacitor. The 3 μm pitch CTIA pixel has 22 Ke- well capacity and input-referred 37 e- or 48 e- readout noise, with and without correlated double sampling (CDS) respectively. The ROIC using 3 μm pitch 1920 x 1080 pixel array was designed to operate in ripple readout mode, both with and without the off-chip CDS. Pixels and single-slope 12 bit column A/D converter achieve < 1% non-linearity over 600 mV pixel output swing, with all necessary biases internally generated. Custom static random access memory (SRAM) is used for storing A/D conversion results with all timing clocks also internally generated. The data from the SRAM is serialized and readout through 4 x 600 Mbps LVDS serial outputs synchronized to 2 LVDS output clocks (2 data and 1 clock output on top and the bottom). The ROIC total power consumption was simulated at 536 mW from 1.2 V and 3.3 V power supplies. The FPAs using 3 μm pixel pitch ROIC and detector can be used in portable applications for atmospheric haze penetration, camouflage and NIR/SWIR designator detection. Such cost-effective targeting cameras can have around 10 hour operating time on single charge from 5000 mA-h, 3.8 V commercial Li-ion battery in portable applications.
The DARPA Wafer-scale Infrared Detectors (WIRED) program requires the development of low cost detector technologies with high quantum efficiency and low dark current based on colloidal quantum dots (CQDs) of compound semiconductors. The program targets the SWIR (900 – 1700 nm) spectral range. This paper focuses on the design of 3 μm pitch, low noise ROICs for interfacing with SWIR CQD detectors. So far, the team has developed and demonstrated PV detector technology based on thin film CQDs IR-absorbing materials. The CQD films are deposited by spin-coating from solution directly on ROIC and fanout wafers at room temperature. The photodiode fabrication is fully compatible with CMOS fabrication at the wafer-level, allowing for large format FPAs limited only by the ROIC size. This paper outlines the preliminary design of a 3 μm pitch 1920 x 1080 modular ROIC, easily scalable to larger formats by mask stitching.
DRS has designed a full HD (1920x1080) readout integrated circuit (ROIC) specifically for cost-effective waferscale infrared (WIRED) detectors on 3 μm pitch, for best theoretical image quality optical system performance. The sensor’s pixels use a capacitive trans-impedance amplifier (CTIA) and a metal-insulator-metal (MIM) integration capacitor, to achieve 22 Ke- well capacity, 0.7 V output swing and 37 e- or 18 e- equivalent readout noise, operating at 60 Hz ripple readout mode or 30 Hz correlated double sampling (CDS) mode, respectively. The fully digital ROIC consumes approximately 0.5 W of power, allowing it to be fielded in battery-powered applications.
Computational Vision is poised to transition from the laboratory to the battlefield; however, which techniques are the most appropriate for tactical applications? This report provides a review of 3D vision techniques and evaluates their potential application to various classes of autonomous vehicles from a systems engineering perspective. This report provides an overview of 3D vision techniques, evaluates robustness and susceptibility to countermeasures, evaluates vehicle integration requirements, and identifies promising approaches.
Thermal Imaging Systems are characterized by various tests such as Minimum Resolvable Temperature (MRT), System Intensity Transfer Function (SITF) and Noise Equivalent Temperature Differential (NETD). Numerous sources of errors can effect these test giving misleading results. These error sources are analyzed and a new correction methodology is presented.
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