Mismatch-tolerant read-in IC with voltage-drop compensation for infrared scene projectors

Abstract

This letter presents a mismatch-tolerant read-in integrated circuit (RIIC) with voltage-drop compensation applicable to high-speed and high-temperature infrared scene projectors. A current-programmed unit pixel is designed to compensate for ground-line voltage drops, thus improving the array-wide current uniformity. The proposed mismatch-tolerant design circumvents non-monotonic fluctuations in the output current, irrespective of the matching properties of sampling capacitors and switches. A prototype RIIC with a 32 x 32 unit-pixel array is fabricated in a 0.18-mu m CMOS process. The RIIC compensates for voltage drops up to 500mV with error currents below 1 mu A and achieves 10-bit accuracy with output-current non-monotonicity eliminated.