The Sofradir mercury cadmium telluride technology is in production. Among numerous devices one Sofradir product, the 288 X 4 linear array with TDI, is at the top level of the production status. This fact is the result of much effort first at the Infrared Research Laboratory (Lir), then at the Sofradir development center where stabilization of the process, including reliability and industrialization, was done. Today a production pilot line is manufacturing many detector dewar assemblies. The purpose of this paper is to describe this pilot line in terms of process, capacity, and process control at each step of the production. Sofradir's test concept is explained. In order to show the process uniformity and the reproducibility, a statistical study on the main characteristics for a typical quantity of detector dewar assemblies is given.

The topics of this paper deal with the IR-CCD detectors manufactured by SOFRADIR the new French joint venture. Description of the IRCCD technology and the advantages of this approach are given. In conclusion, some IR-CCD typical results are given.