BAE systems' SMART chip camera FPA development

Abstract

BAE Systems' SMART (Stacked Modular Architecture High-Resolution Thermal) Chip Camera provides very compact long-wave infrared (LWIR) solutions by combining a 12 μm wafer-level packaged focal plane array (FPA) with multichip-stack, application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) and wafer-level optics. The key innovations that enabled this include a single-layer 12 μm pixel bolometer design and robust fabrication process, as well as wafer-level lid packaging. We used advanced packaging techniques to achieve an extremely small-form-factor camera, with a complete volume of 2.9 cm3 and a thermal core weight of 5.1g. The SMART Chip Camera supports up to 60 Hz frame rates, and requires less than 500 mW of power. This work has been supported by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s (DARPA) Low Cost Thermal Imager − Manufacturing (LCTI-M) program, and BAE Systems’ internal research and development investment.