A 64×64 pixel temporal contrast microbolometer infrared sensor

This paper presents a 64times64 pixel micro-bolometer based temporal contrast IR sensor. The pixels of the sensor independently and asynchronously respond to changes in thermal IR radiation and communicate respective events via arbitrated AER. A 46 dB-gain, small-area, ultra low-power, low-mismatch differencing switched-capacitor amplifier has been designed for reading out the bolometer front-end. The chip has been fabricated in a 0.35 mum standard CMOS process and covers about 4times4 mm² of silicon area. An amorphous silicon (a-Si) microbolometer array has been processed on top and contacted to the pixel circuits. Measurement results of the ROIC and the bolometer element and first results of the final temporal contrast IR sensor are presented.