Competitive technologies of third generation infrared photon detectors |
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Authors: | A Rogalski |
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Institution: | (1) Institute of Applied Physics, Military University of Technology, 2 Kaliskiego Str., 00-908 Warsaw, Poland |
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Abstract: | Hitherto, two families of multielement infrared (IR) detectors are used for principal military and civilian infrared applications;
one is used for scanning systems (first generation) and the other is used for staring systems (second generation). Third generation
systems are being developed nowadays. In the common understanding, third generation IR systems provide enhanced capabilities
like larger number of pixels, higher frame rates, better thermal resolution as well as multicolour functionality and other
on-chip functions.
In the paper, issues associated with the development and exploitation of materials used in fabrication of third generation
infrared photon detectors are discussed. In this class of detectors two main competitors, HgCdTe photodiodes and quantum well
IR photoconductors (QWIPs) are considered. The performance figures of merit of state-of-the-art HgCdTe and QWIP focal plane
arrays (FPAs) are similar because the main limitations come from the readout circuits. However, the metallurgical issues of
the epitaxial layers such as uniformity and number of defected elements are the serious problems in the case of long wavelength
infrared (LWIR) and very LWIR (VLWIR) HgCdTe FPAs. It is predicted that superlattice based InAs/GaInSb system grown on GaSb
substrate seems to be an attractive to HgCdTe with good spatial uniformity and an ability to span cutoff wavelength from 3
to 25 μm. |
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Keywords: | HgCdTe detectors QWIPs type II superlattices third generation detectors |
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