Infrared Material Growth and Detector Processing Technology

Infrared detectors have wide applications in missile guidance, surveillance and smart ammunition. Within the infrared spectrum, multi-color detection is highly desirable. Among the two color detectors, the ones with multi-spectral response and sharing the common optical area are of particular interest for military applications. The goal of this program is then to develop a technology to produce two color detectors, arrays and focal plane arrays. The final FPAs to be produced by the technology developed in this program will have a monolithic structure, a common sensing area and will be on silicon wafers. The infrared material will be HgCdTe grown by MOCVD method. In this phase I program period, HgCdTe multilayers consisting of MWIR and LWIR layers will first be produced. Subsequently, two color detectors will be fabricated in these materials by ion implementation and related processing steps. There are a number of two color detector types. By the end of this Phase I period, we will determine which type will be favored and be used in the Phase II program for producing FPAs. In the second phase of this program, multiplexers for operating two color detector arrays will be designed and fabricated. The HgCdTe two color detector arrays will be integrated to the multiplexers and then the final FPAs will be tested.