160 × 244 Element PtSi Schottky-barrier IR-CCD image sensor

A 160 × 244 element IR-CCD image sensor was developed with PtSi Schottky-barrier detectors (SBD's) for thermal imaging in the 3.0-5.0-µm IR band. This imager has 80 × 40 µm2pixels, a fill factor of 39 percent, and a chip size of 584 × 464 mil2. It produces excellent quality thermal imaging with noise-equivalent temperature (NEΔT) of less than 0.1 K for operation at 30 frames/s with standard-TV-interlace f/2.3 optics, and one-point offset-type uniformity corrector. This paper describes the design, construction, and performance of 160 × 244 element IR-CCD imager and the characteristics of the PtSi Schottky-barrier detector elements.