Focal-Plane Signal and Noise Model–CTIA ROIC

A method for electrooptical sensor focal plane signal-to-noise analysis is developed, which consists of coupling a reset-integrator-sampler readout model to a focal plane unit cell detector-preamp model. The combined readout integrated circuit (ROIC) model may be used to evaluate the signal and noise of visible or infrared focal plane arrays that use sample-and-hold, correlated double sampling (CDS), or other sampling schemes. The analysis developed here clears up the considerable confusion regarding CDS operation by elucidating how CDS operates on both signal and noise and explains the dependence of output 1/f noise on integration and epoch times. The reset-integrator model is then coupled to a capacitive transimpedance amplifier (CTIA) preamp model, and signal and noise formulas for imagers with CTIA-CDS ROICs are developed and used to evaluate the signal and noise of example scanning and staring focal plane arrays.