High-speed CMOS readout integrated circuit for large-scale and high-resolution microbolometer array

A new CMOS readout integrated circuit (ROIC) for microbolometric focal plane array (FPA) is proposed in this paper. By applying multiple-module parallel working technique, the pixel readout speed of the CMOS ROIC can reach 10 MHz, which is very suitable for large-scale microbolometer array. The CMOS ROIC of each parallel working module consists of three major parts: direct injection (DI) input circuits, column-shared integrating circuits, and common noise-suppressing circuits. The readout structure of the ROIC is simple because of the DI input, shared and common circuits, and this makes the ROIC satisfy the requirements of small-pixel microbolometric FPA. Furthermore, the voltage signals from different working modules can be output according to a certain order through a high-speed output circuit. An experimental readout chip based on the proposed ROIC has been designed and fabricated to verify its readout function and performance. The measurement results of the experimental readout chip have successfully proved that the proposed CMOS ROIC can be applied to high-speed, low-noise, large-scale and high-resolution microbolometric FPA.