Long-MWIR HgCdTe butted linear arrays

High resolution infrared imaging system calls for very long scanning arrays with several thousands of detectors and high performance. This paper presents the recent technological developments carried out at LETI/LIR on long butted arrays and gives the results obtained on a 1500 detector linear HgCdTe array with a 30 micrometer pitch and a 5.5 micrometer cut-off wavelength. This very large array (length approximately equals 50 mm) has an indirect hybrid architecture composed of 5 butted HgCdTe PV detection circuits and 5 Si CMOS readouts hybridized on a mechanically close-matched fanout substrate. Defect free dicing and butting, respecting the detector pitch, is made by accurate and non damaging techniques. A detailed description of the array and the main electro-optical performances are presented.