High sensitivity, 1.06 um ladar photoreceivers with micro digitized pixels

This Phase II SBIR project will develop 1064-nm true single photon counting, semiconductor ladar photoreceivers for enhanced ABL and EKV resolution and engagement range, which will significantly increase their hit-to-kill capability with reduced size, weight and power. The basis of the proposed effort is a combination of on-chip digitization and optical amplification to enhance sensitivity and fill-factor, obviating the need for electronic amplification before digitization without sacrificing the bandwidth and increasing the transmit energy level. In Phase II, we will build on the results of Phase I, during which we designed and or implemented 1064-nm APDs, optical amplifiers and microdigitizers and established the feasibility of true single photon counting semiconductor ladar receivers based on this technology. Specifically, we will enhance the performance of the photoreceiver components developed in Phase I to achieve high gain optical amplifiers, sub-nanoampere dark current APDs and 1-bit microdigitizers. During Phase II, we will develop the technology to integrate these components and design, fabricate, hybridize and package 10 x 10 optically preamplified microdigitized photoreceiver arrays with single photon sensitivity ( -65.8 dBm sensitivity) at 1.4 GHz bandwidth (2.5 Gsps), to enable a ladar range of at least 300 Km with less than 30 cm resolution.