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Review
. 2023 Mar 2;23(5):2727.
doi: 10.3390/s23052727.

Readout IC Architectures and Strategies for Uncooled Micro-Bolometers Infrared Focal Plane Arrays: A Review

Samuele Fusetto  1 , Antonio Aprile  1 , Piero Malcovati  1 , Edoardo Bonizzoni  1
Affiliations
Review

Readout IC Architectures and Strategies for Uncooled Micro-Bolometers Infrared Focal Plane Arrays: A Review

Samuele Fusetto et al. Sensors (Basel). .

Abstract

InfraRed Focal Plane Arrays (IRFPAs) are crucial components in a wide range of applications, including night vision, thermal imaging and gas sensing. Among the various types of IRFPAs, micro-bolometer-based ones have gained significant attention due to their high sensitivity, low noise and low cost. However, their performance is heavily dependent on the readout interface, which converts the analog electrical signals provided by the micro-bolometers into digital signals for further processing and analysis. This paper briefly introduces these kinds of devices and their function, reporting and discussing a list of key parameters used to evaluate their performance; after that, the focus is shifted to the readout interface architecture with particular attention to the different strategies adopted, across the last two decades, in the design and development of the main blocks included in the readout chain.

Keywords: IRFPA; bolometers; micro-bolometers; readout interfaces; thermal imaging.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
TCR values of commonly employed material types for the micro-bolometer’s sensing membrane.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Three-dimensional layout of a micro-bolometer with a breakdown of its main parts.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Micro-bolometer cross-section.
Figure 4
Figure 4
NETD trend of the main micro-bolometer works of the last 17 years [1,2,3,5,14,16,17,21,22,27,28,29,30].
Figure 5
Figure 5
Conceptual block diagram of an IRFPA ROIC.
Figure 6
Figure 6
Commonly used voltage mode readout circuits: direct bias approach (a) and Wheatstone bridge approach (b).
Figure 7
Figure 7
Commonly used current mode readout circuit.
Figure 8
Figure 8
Pixel-wise readout scheme with a magnified view of the pixel interface.
Figure 9
Figure 9
Column-wise readout scheme with a focus on the micro-bolometer pixel matrix interconnections.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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