58 X 62 Insb Focal Plane Array For Infrared Astronomy

Santa Barbara Research Center has developed a 58 x 62 staring mosaic focal plane array (FPA) consisting of an indium antimonide detector array hybridized to a silicon direct read-out (DRO) multiplexer for use in infrared astronomy. The detectors are sensitive to radia-tion from 1 to 5 μm. Each detector in the array is connected to the DRO via an indium bump contact and has its own high-impedance, low-capacitance buffer amplifier. The requirements of infrared astronomy are described and compared to the performance of this FPA. These requirements include low dark-current and readout noise for near-BLIP performance and full-frame readout times from 32 ms to more than 20s. Other features of the array include a nondestructive readout capability and user-controlled sequencing of the DRO, i.e., random access. Both modeling and measurements of the FPA performance are presented. Results include responsivity, noise, NEP, linearity, and dark current. These FPAs are currently available to the astronomy community along with a set of drive electronics which operates the FPA and provides analog signal processing.