DESIGN OF AN AUTOMATED FEEDBACK CONTROL COOLING SYSTEM FOR SWIR LINEAR IMAGE SENSOR APPLICATION

Abstract

Our novel automated feedback temperature controlled cooling system consists of a temperature measurement circuit, a TE cooler, a thermistor, a microcontroller, and a digital-to-analog converter and PWM algorithms. The measurement accuracy of this temperature controlled TE system was better than 0.1 degrees C and can be used for maintaining an instrument's isothermal applications. The experimental results of SWIR linear image shows that the temperature can be stably maintained at -20 degrees C, the dark output current can be reduced almost 80mV (Integration time: 100 ms) and the SNR of pixel can be improved from 48dB to 83dB as well.