Design and Development of Silicon-Based Infrared Imaging Sensor

Low cost IR Sensors are needed for a variety of Military and Commercial Applications. The defense application includes use of SiGe IR Sensors as low cost thermal imagers for various Army and Marine missions and the ability to detect mortar fire and muzzle flash in hostile environment. SiGe based IR Focal Planes offers a low cost alternative for developing near IR sensors that will not require any cooling and can operate in the NIR band. The attractive features of SiGe based IRFPA’s will take advantage of Silicon based technology, that can promise small feature size and compatibility with the Silicon CMOS circuit for signal processing. As Part of the Phase II Program, Magnolia will work with MIT to design, develop and build high sensitivity infrared sensor based on SiGe material system. We will evaluate various device designs for SiGe detectors to simulate and model the performance for very low dark current and high quantum efficiency and hence higher SiGe sensor performance. We plan to build and characterize SiGe detector arrays for their electrical and optical properties at room temperature. The Phase II effort will be focused on building the 2-D SiGe focal plane arrays with high quantum efficiency and very low leakage current. Magnolia will also collaborate with Boeing /SAIC for the FCS Program and iRobot for Robotic applications for the FCS and other missions. We will also work with FLIR Systems for their Army and Navy System Applications.