The simulation of a readout integrated circuit with high dynamic range for long wave infrared FPA

Abstract

This paper describes the simulation results of a high performance readout integrated circuit (ROIC) designed for long wave infrared (LWIR) detectors, which has high dynamic range (HDR). A special architecture is used to the input unit cell to accommodate the wide scene dynamic range requirement, thus providing over a factor of 70dB dynamic range. A capacitive feedback transimpedance amplifier (CTIA) provides a low noise detector interface circuit capable of operating at low input currents and a folded cascade amplifier with a gain of 73dB is designed. A 6.4pF integration capacitor is used for supporting a wide scene dynamic range, which can store 80Me. Because of the restriction of the layout area, four unit cells will share an integration capacitor. A sample and hold capacitor is also part of the input unit cell architecture, which allows the infrared focal plane arrays (IRFPA) to be operated in full frame snapshot mode and provides the maximum integration time available. The integration time is electronically controlled by an external clock pulse. The simulation results show that the circuit works well under 5V power supply and the nonlinearity is calculated less than 0.1%. The total power dissipation is less than 150mW.