Publications

We describe novel digital readout integrated circuits (DROICs) that achieve snapshot on-chip high dynamic range imaging where most commercial systems require a multiple exposure acquisition.

Smart pixel imaging with computational-imaging arrays (SPICA) transfers image plane coding typically realized in the optical architecture to the digital domain of the focal plan array, thereby minimizing signal-to-noise losses associated with static filters or apertures and inherent diffraction concerns. MIT Lincoln Laboratory has been developing digital-pixel focal plane array (DFPA) devices for many years. In this work, we leverage legacy designs modified with new features to realize a computational imaging array (CIA) with advanced pixel-processing capabilities. We briefly review the use of DFPAs for on-chip background removal and image plane filtering. We focus on two digital readout integrated circuits (DROICS) as CIAs for two-dimensional (2D) transient target tracking and three-dimensional (3) transient target estimation using per-pixel coded-apertures or flutter shutters. This paper describes two DROICs -- a SWIR pixel-processing imager (SWIR-PPI) and a Visible CIA (VISCIA). SWIR-PPI is a DROIC with a 1 kHz global frame rate with a maximum per-pixel shuttering rate of 100 MHz, such that each pixel can be modulated by a time-varying, pseudo-random, and duo-binary signal (+1,-1,0). Combining per-pixel time-domain coding and processing enables 3D (x,y,T) target estimation with limited loss of spatial resolution. We evaluate structured and pseudo-random encoding strategies and employ linear inversion and non-linear inversion using total-variation minimization to estimate a 3D data cube from a single 2D temporally-encoded measurement. The VISCIA DROIC, while low-resolution, has a 6 kHz global frame rate and simultaneously encodes eight periodic or aperiodic transient target signatures at a maximum rate of 50 MHz using eight 8-bit counters. By transferring pixel-based image plane coding to the DROIC and utilizing sophisticated processing, our CIAs enable on-chip temporal super-resolution.