High-Sensitivity UV Solid-State Photon-Counting Devices and Arrays

Purpose: In this Phase I SBIR program, a collaboration between Magnolia Optical Technologies and Georgia Institute of Technology, we propose to advance the development of GaN and AlGaN ultraviolet (UV), deep-UV (DUV), and far-UV (FUV) single-photon avalanche detectors (SPADs) using the well-developed Si photomultiplier (SiPM) concept and then, in future SBIR Phases, to commercialize practical devices for NASA system needs, e.g., Large UV/Optical/IR Surveyor (LUVOIR) and many other DoD, DoE, and commercial applications. Our team has collaborated on the development of III-N APDs in the past. Our overall innovation in this SBIR will be to ultimately create the III-N analog of the silicon-based avalanche photodiode (APD) arrays—commonly referred to as silicon photomultipliers (SiPMs): a back-illuminated hybrid III-N SPAD-focal-plane array (FPA) device flip-chip-bonded and electrically coupled to a Si CMOS read-out circuit. Use of Funding: These Phase I funds will be used to grow, process, and test additional GaN-based APDs to further evaluate some of our innovative concepts for improving the overall performance of photon-counting III-N UV SPADs. Markets: Future markets include NASA, DoD, DoE and many “dual-use” and commercial applications. Example applications include PET scanners, UV LIDAR, contamination control, early missile threat detection and interception, chemical and biological threat detection, UV flame monitoring, and UV environmental monitoring. The global commercial UV sensor market is projected to grow substantially over the next five years. The market growth is powered by commercial and defense applications that will transition to our UV-SPAD devices that can directly benefit from the performance capabilities and features of the III-N UV-SPAD detector technology.