Readout architectures for uncooled IR detector arrays

The main idea of this paper is to compare the readout architectures for unc ooled microbolometer focal plane detector arrays with respect to the detect or and readout circuit noise. The comparison is done keeping the total powe r consumption of all architectures constant. Three CMOS readout architectur es with different degree of parallelism are described in this paper: pixelw ise, columnwise and serial. The noise model of the readout circuit is given . Also, the optimization for the lowest NETD (noise equivalent temperature difference) and estimation of the self-heating effect is presented. (C) 200 0 Elsevier Science S.A. All rights reserved.