640 × 512 17 μm microbolometer FPA and sensor development

Abstract

RVS has made a significant breakthrough in the development of a 640 x 512 uncooled array with a unit cell size of 17 &#956;m x 17 &#956;m, and performance approaching that of the 25&#956;m arrays. The successful development of this array is the first step in achieving mega-pixel formats. This FPA is designed to ultimately achieve performance of (<50mK, f/1, 30 Hz) with an 8 msec time constant. The SB-400 is a highly productized ROIC and is designed to achieve very good sensitivity (low NETD and low spatial noise) and good dynamic range. The improved performance is through bolometer structure improvements and an innovative ROIC design. It also has a simple and flexible electrical interface which allows external electronics to be small, lightweight, low-cost, and low-power. Almost all adjustments can be made through the serial interface; hence there is no need for external adjustable (DAC) circuitry. The improved power supply rejection helps maintain highly stable detector and strip resistor bias voltages which helps reduce spatial noise and image artifacts. The combination of reduced FPA pixel size and improved effective thermal sensitivity enhances weapon sight performance by providing smaller, lighter-weight sights via reduced optics size or increased range via enhanced pixel resolution without increasing mass or increased range via improved NETD (lower f/#) without increasing mass. We will also provide an update on the enhanced performance and yield producibility of our NVESD ManTech 640 x 480 25&#956;m arrays. We will also show the improvement in our uncooled common architecture electronics in terms of reduced power and size for helmet and rifle mounted sensors and a variety of missile applications.