SBIR Phase I: Colloidal Quantum Dot Image Sensors for Low-Cost Short-Wave Infrared Imaging

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project is to develop a low-cost infrared imaging device that enables real-time monitoring of agricultural products for crop management and product quality inspection. Handheld and drone-mountable spectroscopic tools are gaining traction, but their limited spectral range fails to directly measure the unique identifiers of crop maturity and quality such as oil and sugar contents. Furthermore, this innovation, as a platform technology, will address a broader need of the infrared community for lower cost detector arrays and enable system integrators to develop camera systems to increase the safety of driver-assisted vehicles, improve the reliability of advanced manufacturing techniques, and enhance national security. This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project develops a photodetector array produced using infrared-tunable semiconductor nanocrystals, or colloidal quantum dots. Unlike crystalline semiconductor technologies, these colloidal quantum dot inks are fashioned into photodetector devices directly on the electronic circuits using inexpensive solution coating techniques, which enables the development of a small pixel pitch focal plane array with a spectral range from 1000-2500 nm and pixel resolution greater than 640x512 to address market opportunities in low-cost imaging systems. The Phase I project objective is to develop a colloidal quantum dot detector array that competes on performance with existing technologies for shortwave infrared sensing and is compatible with vacuum packaging techniques by controlling the impact of engineering factors such as surface chemistry, reagent concentration, and process temperature on the performance and thermal stability. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.