Next Generation IR Focal Plane Array Using High Speed Tunneling Diodes (SubTopic 003E)

"ITN Energy Systems, Inc. believes that significant improvements in IR sensor performance could be achieved by replacing state-of-the-art detector technologies, such as bolometers and photodiodes, with ITN's proposed direct conversion device (DCD). Anadvanced planar metal-insulator-metal (MIM) tunneling diode is the cornerstone of ITN's DCD, which employs an antenna aperture to efficiently couple to free space electromagnetic (EM) radiation and the MIM diode to rectify the resultant AC field. ITN's DCDwill serve as the detector in a focal plane array that, when combined with existing signal processing and readout technologies, will enable imaging applications from standard scene definition to hyperspectral imaging with a single sensor technology.Compared to state-of-the-art detectors, ITN's DCD offers IR Imaging with 1) Greater bandwidth: A single device for short wave IR to long wave IR (and even longer wavelengths), 2) Hyperspectral imaging: Signature identification and target trackingheterodyne detection-spectroscopic scanning of key IR bands, 3) Increased sensitivity: Detection of weak, clandestine signals, and 4) Reduced Cost: Fabrication technology compatible with large area silicon processing. With ITN's proposed processingapproach to formation of a stable and reproducible MIM tunneling barrier, monolithically integrated DCD's can be produced with the proposed properties herein. Due to the inherent scalability of ITN's antenna