Long wave focal plane array detector: development and performance assessment of an 8X8 Sterling cooled photovoltaic MCT detector module

In June 2005, a newly develop long wave Focal Pane Array (FPA), based on photo-voltaic technology was delivered to the Defense Research & Development of Canada (DRDC). This development was part of technological Demonstration program that was founded by the DRDC. This paper will describe the FPA configuration along with its performance assessment configured in the Air PIRATE FTIR spectrometer. Air PIRATE is an airborne version of the hyper spectral spectrometer used by the Canadian Defense for target identification, as well as chemical agent identification.