ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Readout integrated circuit

A readout integrated circuit or ROIC is like a special computer chip that helps us see pictures or images. Imagine you have a bunch of tiny little cameras that can take pictures. Each camera takes a little bit of the picture, like a puzzle piece. We need to put all the puzzle pieces together to see the whole picture. The ROIC helps us do this by organizing all the little puzzle pieces of the picture in the right place.

It's like if you had a big puzzle with a picture of a puppy. Each piece of the puzzle has a little bit of the puppy's face or body. The ROIC helps us put all the pieces together so we see the whole puppy. We can use this process to create images of things in outer space, or to see inside our bodies with medical imaging.

So, a ROIC is like a special helper that makes it easier for us to see pictures by putting all the pieces together.