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Mercury-Cadmium-Telluride Focal Plane Array Performance Under Non-Standard Operating ConditionsThis paper highlights a new technique that allows the Teledyne Scientific & Imaging LLC TCM6604A Mercury-Cadmium-Telluride (MCT) Focal Plane Array (FPA) to operate at room temperature. The Teledyne MCT FPA has been a standard in Imaging Spectroscopy since its creation in the 1980's. This FPA has been used in applications ranging from space instruments such as CRISM, M3 and ARTEMIS to airborne instruments such as MaRS and the Next Generation AVIRIS Instruments1. Precise focal plane alignment is always a challenge for such instruments. The current FPA alignment process results in multiple cold cycles requiring week-long durations, thereby increasing the risk and cost of a project. These alignment cycles are necessary because optimal alignment is approached incrementally and can only be measured with the FPA and Optics at standard operating conditions, requiring a cold instrument. Instruments using this FPA are normally cooled to temperatures below 150K for the MCT FPA to properly function. When the FPA is run at higher temperatures the dark current increases saturating the output. This paper covers the prospect of warm MCT FPA operation from a theoretical and experimental perspective. We discuss the empirical models and physical laws that govern MCT material properties and predict the optimal settings that will result in the best MCT PA performance at 300K. Theoretical results are then calculated for the proposed settings. We finally present the images and data obtained using the actual system with the warm MCT FPA settings. The paper concludes by emphasizing the strong positive correlation between the measured values and the theoretical results.
Document ID
20120000666
Acquisition Source
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Document Type
Conference Paper
External Source(s)
Authors
Richardson, Brandon S.
(Jet Propulsion Lab., California Inst. of Tech. Pasadena, CA, United States)
Eastwood, Michael L.
(Jet Propulsion Lab., California Inst. of Tech. Pasadena, CA, United States)
Bruce, Carl F.
(Jet Propulsion Lab., California Inst. of Tech. Pasadena, CA, United States)
Green, Robert O.
(Jet Propulsion Lab., California Inst. of Tech. Pasadena, CA, United States)
Coles, J. B.
(Jet Propulsion Lab., California Inst. of Tech. Pasadena, CA, United States)
Date Acquired
August 25, 2013
Publication Date
March 5, 2011
Subject Category
Instrumentation And Photography
Meeting Information
Meeting: IEEE Aerospace
Location: Big Sky, MT
Country: United States
Start Date: March 5, 2011
End Date: March 12, 2011
Sponsors: Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
Distribution Limits
Public
Copyright
Other
Keywords
Focal Plane Array (FPA)
airborne instruments
imagining spectroscopy

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