Staring arrays for use in the 8-14 micrometer band

Future missile guidance systems will use focal plane arrays in the nonmechanically scanned i.e. staring mode. In connection with development work related to the manufacture of staring arrays, a company in the UK has conducted a program concerned with the production of a 32 x 32 array operating in the 8-14 micrometer waveband. The program is based on a hybrid approach involving the use of cadmium mercury telluride (CMT) photovoltaic detectors on silicon circuitry. The devices will initially be used for a number of guidance applications during the 1980s. Until the systems aspects are defined, work is continuing on a number of ways of addressing the CMT array, and for this reason the part of the program on silicon is broad based, encompassing work on charge-coupled devices (CCD) and n-MOS devices. Attention is given to system requirements, array technology, automatic diode array assessment, a CCD multiplexer, and n-MOS multiplexers.