GaAs-Based Infrared Microsensors

The objective of Phase I is to develop monolithic GaAs-based infrared detector arrays with GaAs readout electronics. The project includes three major technical tasks: 1) detector design, 2) process integration, and 3) readout electronics. The primary application of this project is for BMDO infrared sensing needs such as in missile defense systems, and it is also applicable to many microsensor applications. Potential commercial applications include: infrared imaging devices, radiation thermometers, hot metal detectors, human body detection, flame and laser monitors, water content and gas analyzers, spectrophotometers, film thickness meters, and long range remote sensing. Top-Vu has commercialization support from the Minnesota Consortium for Defense Conversion. The anticipated benefits include several order of magnitude performance improvements, compared to silicon technology, and new applications where silicon fails to meet system requirements. These system requirements include very low NETD, very high speed sensing response, high radiation hardness, and optical interface.