Low-frequency noise measurements as an investigation tool of pixel flickering in cooled Hg/sub 0.7/Cd/sub 0.3/Te focal plane arrays

We report on electrical noise measurements on both Hg/sub 0.7/Cd/sub 0.3/Te test patterns and hybrid 320 /spl times/ 256 focal plane array in order to explain the low-frequency pixel flickering physical origin. Dark and under infrared illumination test patterns characterization highlights that the detector chip is not responsible for the flickering phenomenon. Taking into account the silicon readout chip influence when the full infrared complementary metal-oxyd semiconductor (IRCMOS) infrared detector is investigated, the indium bump based interconnecting system is finally pointed out as a potential excess noise source.