Low-noise high-sensitivity digital readout integrated circuit for SWIR imaging

Indium gallium arsenide and colloidal quantum dot SWIR sensors can produce stronger contrast imagery than their visible counterparts due to the reduced scattering in the SWIR band. A 640 x 512 format, 10 μm pixel pitch low-noise highsensitivity DROIC, with a capacitive transimpedance amplifier pixel front end, for SWIR imaging is presented. This DROIC has variable gain pixels with well capacities of approximately 22 ke- in high gain, 160 ke- in mid gain and 1.1 Me- in low gain. The readout boasts a low read noise of only 15 e- rms at room temperature in high gain with correlated double sampling. This DROIC can run at 700 fps full frame and 8.9 kfps for 32 x 32 window.