IGF::OT::IGF EARTH OBSERVING MISSIONS LIKE NASA'S LANDSAT DATA CONTINUITY MISSION - THERMAL INFRARED SENSOR…

Public award description

IGF::OT::IGF EARTH OBSERVING MISSIONS LIKE NASA'S LANDSAT DATA CONTINUITY MISSION - THERMAL INFRARED SENSOR (LDCM-TIRS) REQUIRE GREATER SPATIAL RESOLUTION OF THE EARTH THAN THE ~ 100M PROVIDED BY THE CURRENT INSTRUMENT. IMPROVING RESOLUTION TO THE DESIRED ~ 30M REQUIRES INCREASING THE NUMBER OF PIXELS ON TARGET FROM THE CURRENT 640X3 TO ~ 2048X3. THE TIRS INSTRUMENT CONTAINS 640X512 LONGWAVE INFRARED QUANTUM WELL INFRARED PHOTODETECTOR FOCAL PLANE ARRAYS (LWIR QWIP FPAS) JOINTLY DEVELOPED BY NASA/GSFC AND QMAGIQ. QMAGIQ PROPOSES TO ACHIEVE THE HIGHER PIXEL RESOLUTION WHILE SIMULTANEOUSLY IMPROVING QUANTUM EFFICIENCY AND OPERATING TEMPERATURE BY USING ANTIMONY-BASED STRAINED LAYER SUPERLATTICE(SLS) DETECTORS. A KEY CHALLENGE IS DEALING WITH THE EFFECTS OF REDUCING PIXEL PITCH FROM 25 MICRONS DOWN TO ~ 10 MICRONS, VIZ. OPTICAL FILL-FACTOR, OPTICAL CROSSTALK, PROCESSING DIFFICULTIES, PIXEL OPERABILITY, ETC. AS A STEPPING STONE IN PHASE I, WE DEVELOPED AND DELIVERED AN SLS FPA WITH 1280X1024 FORMAT ON 12 MICRON PITCH THAT ACHIEVED RECORD PERFORMANCE,VIZ.>40% QUANTUM EFFICIENCY AND DARK CURRENT HALF OF MCT RULE07 FOR FPAS WITH CUTOFF WAVELENGTH>11 MICRONS. IN PHASE II, WE WILL INCREASE FPA FORMAT TO 2048X2048 AND PUSH CUTOFF WAVELENGTH TO 12-13 MICRONS WHILE STILL HITTING DESIRED QUANTUM EFFICIENCY AND OPERATING TEMPERATURE TARGETS IN CONSULTATION WITH NASA/GSFC. SEVERAL FPAS WILL BE DELIVERED TO NASA FOR EVALUATION.