A Novel MCT Focal Plane Array Thermally Stressed at Low Temperatures

The mercury-cadmium-telluride (MCT) focal plane arrays (FPA) have being populating most of the ground and space instrumentation devoted to near- and short-wave infrared (NIR-SWIR) during the last decades. The ASTEROID project is a fully European initiative to achieve a local manufacturer ready to develop MCT FPAs of ≥ 2k2 class. In order to test and characterize such detectors, special facilities are demanded. In this way, the Institut de Física d’Altes Energies (IFAE) has conducted a research to validate the hybridization reliability of the readout integrated circuit (ROIC) and the MCT detector, which is performed through indium bumps soldering technique. The hybridization reliability was measured by subjecting the ASTEROID detector to several thermal cycles in a temperature range that surpass the detector operating temperature. At every individual thermal cycle, a set of images was captured, analyzed and compared each other to track any pixel degradation. Finally, making use of image classification and segmentation algorithms, the measured number of damaged pixels was determined and the results are presented in this paper.