Large scale W-band focal plane array for passive radiometric imaging

This paper discusses the development of a large scale W-band focal plane array (FPA) for passive radiometric imaging application. The goal is to develop a 40/spl times/26 (1040-pixels) FPA to cover 15/spl deg//spl times/10/spl deg/ instantaneous field-of-view. Each receiver consists of a single direct detection MMIC which is a W-band high gain, wide bandwidth switched LNA with integrated Schottky barrier diode detector. A 1/spl times/4 FPA module, employing linearly tapered slot antenna, is used as the basic building block for the FPA. Typical receiver temperature sensitivity is 0.4 K with 10 ms integration time. For the first time, an automated assembly process is used to produce W-band MMIC modules in large volume.