Long Wavelength HgCdTe Focal Plane Development

Avyd Devices proposes a Molecular Beam Epitaxy (MBE) growth based HgCdTe heterostructure photodiode approach to develop a technology capable of producing LWIR HgCdTe arrays with high performance, high tolerance to nuclear radiation, high uniformity, high operability, and high yield for use in low background space environments. The essential elements of the approach entail Heterostructure growth of LWIR HgCdTe via MBE; p-on-n device architecture; Planar diode approach with active layer of the junction buried in the wider bandgap layer; and Lateral collection implementation with much reduced junction area Phase I development will focus on demonstrating the feasibility of the proposed approach via fabrication of linear and 8x8 mosaic arrays with "lambda"(C) >13 um at 40 K with R(0)A in excess of 10(5) ohm-cm(2), quantum efficiency greater than 60%, total dose tolerance to total dose nuclear radiation in excess of 10(x) rads, and operability greater than 90%. Phase II work will optimize and establish reproducibility of the approach developed in Phase I.