Large format, high resolution, infrared Focal Plane Arrays (FPA) are enablers for several important Electro-optical (EO) defense and commercial imaging applications such as reconnaissance, persistent surveillance, and thermography, where a large number of pixels are required to image the field of view. The development of a small pixel enables the production of a relatively small FPA with high pixel count.
Over the last few years SCD has developed a new generation of Mid-Wave Infrared (MWIR) detector with 2560×2048 format and 5 m pitch, which is based on the mature High Operating Temperature (HOT) MWIR XBn-InAsSb barrier detector technology. The combination of a small pixel and a high operating temperature of 150K results in a compact Integrated Dewar Cooler Assembly (IDCA) that operates with low power consumption and weighs only 360g. Several IDCA prototypes have already been integrated successfully into EO systems.
Achieving even smaller pixel size while maintaining the same electro-optical performance, namely high quantum efficiency, low dark current, low cross talk, high array uniformity, and high operability, is a serious technological challenge. In this work, we present how these challenges have been met in the new Crane FPA and IDCA.
