James Gates

High-performance PTSI MWIR camera

This paper describes a staring Platinum Silicide (PtSi) medium wave infrared (MWIR) camera. The sensor is configured with a 244 x 400 hybrid focal plane array (HFPA), which has a 24 x 24 sq micron unit cell and an 84-percent fill factor. The PtSi HFPA exhibits high sensitivity with a single pixel NE-Delta-T less than 0.09 C at F/2.0 at 60 Hz. The HFPA performance characteristics, such as dc uniformity, signal responsivity, noise, and NE-Delta-T, are reviewed. The camera containing the HFPA is divided into two units: a camera head and camera processor. The camera head operates at a 60 Hz frame rate generating two 3.6 MHz video outputs. The camera processor converts these two outputs into RS-170 video. Nonuniformity correction and video reformatting are performed in the processor. The system architecture, operation, and system performance are described.