SBIR Phase II: Low Cost Visible Blind Ultra Violet Photodetectors on Glass and Polyimide

This Small Business Innovation Research project proposes commercialization of innovative oxide based visible and solar blind ultra-violet light detectors successfully fabricated and tested. The studies clearly indicate the possibility of growing good quality wide band gap tunable oxide thin films on low cost substrates such as glass, quartz, silicon, and polyimide for photoconductive and Schottky UV photodiodes. The detectors fabricated on these substrates show comparable performance to those of AlGaN on sapphire, and SiC with a high responsivity and UV to visible rejection ratio of more than three orders of magnitude. The feasibility of tuning the detector performance at selective UV regions is also successful which is achieved through innovation of the composition control in the wide band gap oxide layer. The company will extend this technology to commercialize the low cost UV detectors and large format detector arrays for UV radiation monitoring systems for personal safety and consumable products, and exploit additional capabilities beyond the scope of the existing Si, GaAs, and AlGaN technologies.