Have we finally accomplished full maturity infrared focal planes? Are the pitches small enough, array sizes large enough, well capacity (and digital ROIC) deep enough, and quantum efficiency high enough? Have we exploited every photon that is available? Have we achieved full optical performance to include diffraction, aberrations, and processing? If not, what is left? Have we exploited spectral characteristics, polarization, and time to the limits? At what point, do these systems become adaptive imaging systems that can respond to multiple missions? At what point do these systems become known as computational imaging systems? In fact, one important question might be: are we still specifying the performance requirements of advanced infrared imagers the right way? The author does not know the answer to most of these questions, but will discuss future possibilities.
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