Raytheon Company

Eli E Gordon

William J Hamilton, Jr

Ronald W Berry

Adam M Kennedy

Michael D Jack

Ryan P Boesch

Michael S Ray

Paul R Norton

Eric J Beuville

Christopher L Fletcher

Jeffrey K Hamers

Microbolometer arrays incorporating per-pixel dark reference structures for non-uniformity correction. In one example a thermal imager includes a device substrate, a microbolometer array disposed on the device substrate and including a plurality of detector elements arranged in a two-dimensional array, each detector element including an imaging microbolometer and a reference microbolometer, the imaging microbolometer being configured to receive electromagnetic radiation from a viewed scene and to produce an image signal in response to receiving the electromagnetic radiation, the image signal including a component produced due to thermal noise in the respective detector element, and the reference microbolometer being shielded from receiving the electromagnetic radiation and configured to produce a reference signal indicative of the thermal noise, wherein the thermal imaging device is configured to produce an image of the viewed scene based on a combination of the image signals and the reference signals from the plurality of detector elements.

Per-pixel dark reference bolometer

A radiation sensor () has a substrate (); an antenna () coupled to the substrate (), a thermal detector unit TDU () spaced from the antenna () and the substrate (); and a multi-layered conductive lead (). The conductive lead () physically contacts the antenna () and the TDU (). The conductive lead () defines a support layer () adjacent to the substrate () for structurally supporting the TDU () over a cavity defined by the substrate (), a buffer layer () disposed on the support layer (), and a superconductive layer () disposed on the buffer layer (). The buffer layer has a crystalline structure to facilitate bonding with other layers. A method for making the sensor () is disclosed wherein the superconductive layer () and the buffer layer () are deposited using laser deposit, the buffer layer () with ion beam assist for alignment.

Passive millimeter wave sensor using high temperature superconducting leads

A hybrid microelectronic array structure is fabricated from a readout integrated circuit array of microelectronic integrated circuits and a supported array of supported islands. The supported islands include one or more supported elements, with a respective supported element for each of the readout integrated circuits. The supported array is made by depositing the first semiconductor region onto a supported substrate and depositing the second semiconductor region onto the first semiconductor region, and defining supported islands as electrically isolated segments. On each supported element, a first interconnect is formed to the first semiconductor region and a second interconnect is formed to the second semiconductor region. The supported array is joined to the readout integrated circuit array by an interconnect structure, preferably a bump interconnect structure, to form the hybrid microelectronic array structure, with each readout integrated electrically interconnected to the respective one of the supported elements.

Hybrid microelectronic array structure having electrically isolated supported islands, and its fabrication

An integrated optical device array structure has a plurality of interconnected solid state microelectronic optical device elements associated together on a substrate structure. The optical device elements may be optical detectors or optical emitters. Each optical device element lies on a nonplanar optical array surface. Each optical device element includes an opto-electronic device that interconverts an optical signal and an opto-electronic device electrical signal, and an electrical interface circuit that is in electrical communication with the opto-electronic device electrical signal. The optical device array structure may be fabricated by preparing a flat array of optical device elements and deforming the flat array into the required shape.

Nonplanar integrated optical device array structure and a method for its fabrication

A monolithic microelectronic array structure includes a microelectronic integrated circuit array having a first plurality of microelectronic integrated circuit elements each deposited on a front side of a substrate. The substrates are physically discontinuous so that each substrate comprises a substrate island which is physically separated from the other substrate islands. The monolithic microelectronic array structure optionally includes a first plurality of input/output elements with a respective input/output element associated with and directly connected to each of the microelectronic integrated circuit elements, and a second plurality of electrically conductive interconnects extending between the microelectronic integrated circuit elements of adjacent substrate islands. The monolithic microelectronic array structure may be planar, or it may be curved.

Growing community of inventors

Goleta, CA, United States of America

Eli E Gordon