Pair-Wise Serial ROIC for Uncooled Microbolometer Array

Abstract

This work presents modelling and simulation of a readout integrated circuit (ROIC) design considering pair-wise serial configuration along with thermal modeling of an uncooled microbolometer array. A fully differential approach is used at the input stage in order to reduce fixed pattern noise due to the process variation and self-heating?related issues. Each pair of microbolometers is pulse-biased such that they both fall under the same self-heating point along the self-heating trend line. A ±10% process variation is considered. The proposed design is simulated with a reference input image consisting of an array of 127x92 pixels. This configuration uses only one unity gain differential amplifier along with a single 14-bit analog-to-digital converter in order to minimize the dynamic range requirement of the ROIC