High-Temperature Low-Voltage APD Material for Army Extended SWIR Applications

IntelliEPI IR, Inc. (IIR) and Sandia National Laboratory (SNL) propose to advance new avalanche photodetector (APD) technology using low-noise Aluminum Gallium Arsenide Antimonide (AlGaAsSb) based multiplication material and Indium Gallium Arsenide Antimonide absorber material and based on Sb-capable multi-wafer Molecular Beam Epitaxy (MBE) technology. Under this development effort, the team will be working closely with industrial partner Raytheon Vision Systems (RVS) to ensure that APD materials development will meet Army needs and enable applications such as micro air vehicle (MAV) sensors and 3D imaging.  The industry technical inputs will ensure that the technology proposed here is compatible with the existing manufacturing infrastructure—particularly being compatible with the existing ROICs and automatically have opportunities for fast production insertion. IIR and SNL will develop low-voltage/ high-temperature APD materials through advanced MBE growth technique, novel design and employing proven epitaxial layer components such as the InGaAsSb absorber and low-noise AlGaAsSb multiplication layers. It is anticipated that IIR advanced III-V approach to the MBE fabrication of the APD structure will result in improved performance and manufacturability over prior competing Silicon and MCT technologies. The Phase I STTR goal is to develop high-performance epi materials operating in linear mode at room temperature and low voltage <20V.  High performance means high QE, low dark current, low excess noise, high multiplication and high yielding pixel operability in array application—especially for large format.