Triple-Mode Read-In Integrated Circuit for Infrared Sensor Evaluation System

Abstract

We propose a novel read-in integrated circuit (RIIC) for infrared scene projectors (IRSPs) providing three modes for infrared (IR) scene adaptive operation. Conventional IRSPs have difficulty in simultaneously satisfying IR-scene fidelity-related parameters such as the thermal dynamic range and thermal resolution, since there is a tradeoff between them. To overcome the limitation, a triple-mode RIIC is proposed. A prototype was fabricated using a $0.35~\mu \text{m}$ CMOS process and measurements were performed to determine its performance. The estimated thermal dynamic range varies from 275–385 K to 275–745 K according to the operating mode. Furthermore, the estimated thermal resolution at temperatures below 300 K reaches only up to 30 mK in every mode when using a 12-bit digital-to-analog converter.