High Sensitivity InAs-InGaSb Strained-Layer Superlattice Detector Arrays

The overall goal of this SBIR project is to develop low cost, low dark current, enhanced quantum efficiency and high sensitivity and uniformity monolithic detectors and arrays having response in spectral range greater than 12 um and operating at temperatures higher than 77K. Epitaxial Technologies' Phase I objective is to establish the feasibility of innovative material growths and device concepts for the detectors and show that they can be used to produce VLWIR arrays exhibiting background-limited performance and improved temperature of operation than the current state-of-the-art (MCT). In the first phase of this program, we propose to develop the InAs/(GaIn)Sb material structures necessary for fabricating detectors having absorption at wavelengths of 8um. The approach will be to use innovative combinations of surface preparation, material growth and passivation technologies to produce and characterize detectors having cut-off wavelength greater than 12 microns using InAs/(GaIn)Sb SLS structures on GaSb substrates. In phase II, we will increase the operating wavelength of the proposed technology to greater than 12.0 um. Further, we will optimize the design, growth and passivation of the InAs/GaInSb SLS material structures and demonstrate prototype 256 x 256 FPAs with high pixel-to-pixel uniformity.