160 x 244 element PtSi Schottky-barrier IR-CCD image sensor

A 160 x 244 element IR-CCD image sensor was developed with PtSi Schottky-barrier detectors (SBDs) for thermal imaging in the 3.0-5.0-micron IR band. This imager has 80 micron x 40 micron pixels, a fill factor of 39 percent, and a chip size of 584 mil x 464 mil. It produces excellent quality thermal imaging with noise-equivalent temperature 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. The design, construction, and performance of a 160 x 244 element IR-CCD imager, and the characteristics of the PtSi Schottky-barrier detector elements, are described.