Digital output for high-performance MCT staring arrays

The InfraRed staring arrays offered by SOFRADIR are more and more compact and offer system solutions in the different IR wavebands. The HgCdTe (Mercury Cadmium Telluride / MCT) material and process, as well as the hybridization technology, have been taken to an even more advanced level of sophistication to achieve these new staring arrays high performances. Latest developments have also been focused on the readout silicon circuit. A frame rate increase, new types of customized functions and digital converter are an important progress in this field. In order to match each system requirements, different flexible architectures of Analog To Digital Converter (ADC) have been developed. These developments implement specific requests in terms of frame rate, power consumption and resolution. Beyond the performance aspects, digital focal plan arrays can be considered as the first step towards a new low cost dewar family, since they allow for a more simple electrical interface on dewar designs. New results concerning these new readout circuit architectures are presented in this paper.

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