Testing of mid-infrared detector arrays for FORCAST

This paper presents results on performance testing of mid-infrared detector arrays for the Faint Object Infrared Camera for the SOFIA Telescope (FORCAST). FORCAST is a two-channel camera that utilizes a Si:As blocked impurity band (BIB) 256 x 256 detector array for imaging through discrete filters at 5 - 25 microns, and a Si:Sb BIB 256 x 256 detector array for imaging at 25 - 40 microns, over a 3.2' x 3.2' field of view, under high thermal background conditions. DRS Technologies has designed and fabricated several Si:As BIB and Si:Sb BIB engineering grade detector arrays which we test as candidate arrays for FORCAST. We present their initial laboratory test performance results.