OPTIMIZED UV SOLAR BLIND GaN/AlGaN AVALANCHE PHOTODIODE FPA

High performance ultraviolet solar blind APD arrays are presently unavailable. In this Phase I SBIR, Voxtel Inc proposes to optimize the design of a UV solar blind avalanche photodiode array enabled by: advances in GaN and AlGaN material growth andprocessing, a novel device architecture, and monolithic integration with high bandwidth, low noise, active/passive quenching, readout integrated circuitry (ROIC). Our Phase I research will perform design trades and 3D simulations of at least two detectorarchitectures suitable for such high sensitivity applications including: 1) a GaN APD with an optimized avalanche layer and 2) a vertical Schottky contact GaN/AlGaN heterostructure APD. Concurrent to detector developments, a high performance ROIC will bedesigned and optimized for monolithically integration to enabling highly sensitive and high-speed sensor operation. Highly sensitivity, high speed photodetectors operating in the ultraviolet, especially in the solar blind region below 0.4 microns, areneeded for both military and commercial applications including lidar, Cherenkov radiation monitoring, particle size and velocity measurements, flame sensing (including hydrogen), biological agent detection, time resolved UV spectroscopy, coronal studies,missile and shellfire detection, and ionosphere studies.