Folded Multiple-Capture: An Architecture for High Dynamic Range Disturbance-Tolerant Focal Plane Array

Earlier studies have shown that multiple capture can achieve high SNR, but cannot satisfy the high dynamic range (HDR) and high speed requirements of the Vertically-Integrated-Sensor-Array (VISA) project. Synchronous selfreset, on the other hand, can achieve these requirements, but suffers from poor SNR. Extended counting can achieve high dynamic range at high frame rate and with good SNR, but at the expense of high power consumption. The paper proposes a new HDR focal plane array architecture, denoted by folded-multiple capture (FMC), which by combining features of the synchronous self-reset and multiple capture schemes, can satisfy the VISA requirements at a fraction of the power dissipation and with more robustness to device variations than extended counting. The architecture is also capable of detecting subframe disturbances, e.g., due to laser jamming, and correcting for it.