An InGaAs FPA for Multiple Purpose Imaging from the Visible through the Short Wave Infrared

We will design, develop, and deliver a 128x128 pixel indium gallium arsenide (InGaAs) focal plane array (FPA) camera that satisfies or exceeds all of the technical requirements of this solicitation. The use of a substrate-removed InGaAs photodiode array will exhibit high quantum efficiency from 0.4 µm through 1.7 mm. The camera will thus be usable both for visible imaging and for the imaging of the eye-safe lasers (wavelengths longer than 1.4 mm) mandated in many ballistic missile defense (BMD) applications. In addition, the use of the InP/InGaAs material system provides inherent radiation hardness. Neither of these is possible with silicon-based CMOS or CCD imagers. The FPA will feature a pixel pitch down to 10 mm, inter-pixel cross talk less than 1%, a dynamic range greater than 1000:1, and staring-mode readout as well as the ability to address individual pixels. The bandwidth when reading out individual pixels will exceed 1 GHz. During Phase II, we will focus on improving the quantum efficiency of the photodiode array in the visible wavelength band, expanding the array to 128x128 pixels, designing a Silicon CMOS readout integrated circuit (ROIC), and integrating the FPA into a camera.