Event-driven seeker

A seeker readout integrated circuit (ROIC) comprising:

• a detection array comprising at least 1250 sensing pixels arranged in a first dimension by first request lines addressed by a first index, and in a second dimension by second request lines addressed by a second index, at least one pixel including
• an electromagnetic radiation sensor to trigger the pixel in response to sensing a triggering quantity of electromagnetic radiation,
• a first request circuit to send a first request through the corresponding first request line in response to the pixel triggering, and
• a second request circuit to send a second request through the corresponding second request line after the pixel triggers;
• a first receiver to receive, for each first index having at least one triggering pixel, the first request from the at least one triggering pixel through the corresponding first request line;
• a second receiver to receive, for each received first request from the at least one triggering pixel, the second request through the corresponding second request line for each second index of the at least one triggering pixel;
• and
• a sequencer to receive, for each triggering pixel, the first index of the first request from the first receiver and the second index of the second request from the second receiver, and to generate an event comprising the received first and second indices of the pixel along with a time stamp of the event.

A method of seeking using a detection array comprising at least 2500 sensing pixels arranged in a first dimension by first request lines addressed by a first index, and in a second dimension by second request lines addressed by a second index, the method comprising:

• for at least one pixel, triggering the pixel in response to the pixel sensing a triggering quantity of electromagnetic radiation;
• for each triggering pixel, sending a first request through the corresponding first request line and a second request through the corresponding second request line;
• receiving, for each first index having at least one triggering pixel, the first request from the at least one triggering pixel through the corresponding first request line;
• receiving, for each received first request from the at least one triggering pixel, the second request through the corresponding second request line for each second index of the at least one triggering pixel;
• and
• for each triggering pixel, generating an event comprising the first index of the corresponding first request line of the first request of the pixel, the second index of the corresponding second request line of the second request of the pixel, and a time stamp corresponding to the time of the triggering of the pixel.