"HIGH PERFORMANCE INDIUM GALLIUM ARSENIDE ARRAYS FOR THE 1.0-1.7 MICRON SPECTRUM"

WE PROPOSE TO OPTIMIZE EPITAXIAL LAYERS OF IN.53GA.47AS ALLOYS WHICH DETECT LIGHT IN THE 1.0-1.7 MICRON SPECTRAL REGION. THE GOAL OF THE PROGRAM IS TO BRING THE YIELD OF INGAAS PHOTODIODES TO SUCH A LEVEL THAT PRODUCTION OF MULTI-ELEMENT (>50) LINEAR ARRAYS WITH 10% UNIFORMITY BECOMEPRACTICAL WITHIN THE PHASE I EFFORT. WE PLAN TO GROW DETECTOR STRUCTURES IN OUR HYDRIDE VAPOR PHASE EPITAXIAL (VPE) REACTOR AND THEN FULLY CHARACTERIZE THE WAFER PRIOR TO PROCESSING. FIRST, THE COMPOSITIONAL VARIATIONS ACROSS THE WAFER WILL BE DETERMINED BY X-RAY DIFFRACTION. NEXT, THE SAME WAFER WILL BE CHARACTERIZED FOR DOPING AND EPI LAYER THICKNESS UNIFORMITY WITH A NEWLY DEVELOPED NONDESTRUCTIVE ORGANIC-ON-INORGANIC C-V TECHNIQUE. THE FULLY ANALYZED WAFERS WILL THEN BE PROCESSED INTO LOW DARK CURRENT PHOTODETECTORS. USING OUR FULLY AUTOMATED COMPUTER DRIVEN WAFER PROBE STATION, MAPS OF DETECTOR DARK CURRENT, CAPACITANCE AND RESPONSIVITY WILL BE GENERATED. THE DEVICE PERFORMANCE MAPS WILL BE CORRELATED TO THE MATERIAL CHARACTERISTICS MAPS OBTAINED FOR THAT WAFER. THE OBTAINED INFORMATION WILL BE USED TO OPTIMIZE EPITAXIAL LAYER QUALITY AND THUS DEVICE YIELD. SUCH HIGH YIELD WAFERS CAN BE THEN USED FOR PRODUCTION OF MULTI-DEVICE LINEAR OR FOCAL PLANE ARRAYS OF INGAAS DETECTORS FOR APPLICATIONS IN TELECOMMUNICATIONS, OPTICAL COMPUTING, SPACE IMAGING, ASTRONOMY, ETC. THE PHASE II EFFORT WOULD INVOLVE DEVELOPMENT OF 128 ELEMENT LINEAR ARRAYS, TWO DIMENSIONAL ARRAYS AND ARRAYS OF INXGA1-XAS (.6< X < 1) FOR DETECTION OFLIGHT IN THE 2-3 UM RANGE. ORGANIC CV TECHNIQUES WILL BE OPTIMIZED AT THE UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA UNDER THEDIRECTION OF PROF. S.R. FORREST.