In response to a NASA SBIR award, Alphacore will continue development of its low-cost, radiation-hardened by design, versatile, digital readout integrated circuit (DROIC) ideally suited for infrared and spectral imaging systems. The DROIC has wide temperature operation range, including both cryogenic and room temperature operation. The DROIC has low power consumption and low read-noise level (1uW/pixel and 10 electrons RMS, respectively). The rad hard ROIC has up to 300krad(Si) of total ionizing dose (TID) and is immune to single event latch-up (SEL).
Alphacore’s DROIC technology is designed to be used with a variety of detector types. Alphacore also has the capability of integrating the DROIC with a detector array to form a focal plane array (FPA). Also, the detector fabrication processes support megapixel-class detector arrays that are suitable for imaging using wavelengths from near infrared (NIR) to longwave infrared (LWIR).
