High Performance Point Source LEDs

This project addresses the need for high performance IR LEDs for scene generation in hardware-in-the-loop facilities and for the in situ calibration of IR optics in seekers and reconnaissance satellites. The Ioffe Institute has developed leading technologies to produce LEDs with high output, low operating voltage, and low thermal resistance. These solid-state devices are capable of simulating high temperature point sources. ATEC has licensed these novel LED technologies. During Phase II, the Ioffe Institute’s LED technology will be transferred to the US, via a collaboration of ATEC, a US university, and a US epitaxial wafer fabricator. Our goal is to demonstrate higher power LEDs (> 1.5 mW CW power) and, therefore, higher simulated temperature, by adapting the existing design to include more transparent substrates and to suppress Auger recombination by the intelligent design of active regions. Effective simulated temperatures in the 2000 – 3000 K are expected from these enhancements. Besides the efforts to improve the performance of the individual IR LEDs, an array of the LEDs will be fabricated to demonstrate their utility in scene generation.