Development of Low Stress Ohmic Contacts to HgCdTe

During the proposed Phase II effort we will manufacture novel ohmic contacts and measure the stress in the ohmic contacts by several methods. We will thermally cycle the ohmic contacts and look for nucleated dislocations as a measure of induced stress. We will also coordinate our work with Professor Enrico Bellotti from Boston University who is an expert at computer modeling of physical phenomena. He will model the strain field in the crystal and will make predictions of how the strain field will interact and affect the electrical properties. We will use CTLMs to measure specific contact resistance. We will measure the ohmics at room temperature and at cryogenic temperatures. We will bump-bond the CTLM patterns to fan-out boards and make measurements in a standard dewar at cryogenic temperatures. Supporting Photronix in this effort is BAE SYSTEMS. BAE SYSTEMS has agreed to donate longwave LPE infrared double layer material as well as full use of its extensive infrared processing facility. Finally, BAE SYSTEMS will make available Read Out Integrated Circuits. The ROICs are needed so we can prove our novel technology by fabricating Focal Plane Arrays with our new ohmic contact technology while using BAE Systems extensive IR processing facilities.