High sensitivity 640 × 512 (20 μm pitch) microbolometer FPAs

RVS has made a significant breakthrough in the development of a 640 × 512 array with a unit cell size of 20μm × 20 μm and performance equivalent to that of the 25μm arrays. The successful development of this array is the first step in achieving mega-pixel formats. This FPA is designed to ultimately achieve performance near the temperature fluctuation limited NETD (<20mK, f/1, 30 Hz). The SB-300 is a highly productized readout 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, light, 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. We will show updated performance and imagery on these arrays, which is currently being measured at <30mK, f/1,555 30 Hz. Pixel operability is greater than 99.5% on most FPAs, where the uncorrected responsivity nonuniformity is less than 4% (sigma/mean), and time constant for these arrays was measured at <8msec. We will report detailed FPA performance results including responsivity, noise, uniformity and pixel operability. We also plan to present video imagery from the most recent FPAs. The reduction in pixel size offers several potential benefits for IR systems. For a given system resolution (IFOV) requirement, the 20 μm pixel will allow an optical volume that is 50 % the size of a 25 μm based system! We will also provide an update on the enhanced performance and yield producibility of our NVESD ManTech 640 × 480 25 μm arrays, and also show data on 25 μm arrays that have been designed for faster time constants (5 ms), while maintaining high performance. We will also show the improvement in our uncooled 320 × 240 and 640 × 480 sensor electronics in terms of reduced power and size for helmet and rifle mounted sensors.