A novel design of infrared focal plane array with digital read out interface

Infrared focal plane array (IRFPA) with digital read out interface is a key sign of the third generation IRFPA, which plays an important role in the reliability and miniaturization of infrared systems. A readout integrated circuit (ROIC) of IRFPA with digital readout interface based on dual ramp single slope (DRSS) analog to digital converter (ADC) architecture is presented in the paper. The design is realized using shared ADCs in column-wise and these ADCs are consisted of simplified DRSS architecture and shared units. Sample, conversion and readout are proceeded simultaneously in order to adapt large scale and high readout frame rate application. This circuit also shows many advantages, including small area and low power consumption. Simulation result shows that this architecture can be expand to 320×256 pixel array with a frame rate of 100 frames per second or a larger size whit lower frame rate, the quantized resolution of this circuit is 12 bit, and the analog power consumption is only 17μw per ADC.

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