Digital infrared focal plane array detectors (Invited)

Compared with the traditional analog infrared focal plane array (IRFPA), the digital IRFPA has many technical advantages, and is the development direction of the IRFPA technology. The research and development status of the digital IRFPA was introduced. Firstly, the differences and features of analog and digital IRFPA were analyzed. Then, the detailed circuit blocks of column-level ADC and digital pixel digital readout integrated circuit (DROIC) were described, and the links between circuit blocks and performances of DROIC were analyzed. Finally, the technical trends of different DROICs were predicted. The developmednt of IRFPA towards a larger array format, a smaller pitch and better performance, demands higher DROIC performance. With DROIC architecture and module circuit advancement, the column-level ADC DROIC will be widely used in large-format and small-pixel IRFPAs, and the digital pixel ROIC will be widely used in long-wavelength IRFPAs.