The Type II superlattice (T2SL) technology is an industrial solution for manufacturing of infrared (IR) imaging sensors that cover the entire IR range, including the vital eSWIR band. These stable III/V materials are uniformly grown on large GaSb wafers (up to 6") and have demonstrated excellent manufacturing yield with maintained high performance and space environment robustness. These unique properties make T2SL the most suitable technology to design and manufacture large area eSWIR FPAs which can meet the stringent requirements of future European civilian and military space programs. In this paper, the performance of IRnova’s VGA format (640 x 512 pixels, 15 μm pitch) eSWIR T2SL detectors designed for industrial applications will be presented along with the development route towards large footprint (2048 x 512 pixels, 15 μm pitch) HD eSWIR FPAs with CTIA ROICs targeting space applications within the EU-funded STEP project (Silicon and T2SL EuroPean collaboration for a non-dependent supply chain for large eSWIR FPAs). From initial results, a cut-off wavelength of 2.5 μm, quantum efficiency > 80% and a dark current density lower than 0.1μA/cm2 @ 200 K have been demonstrated.
In this paper, the first extended SWIR (eSWIR, 1-2.5 μm) focal plane array (FPA) results, based on IRnova’s 2.5 μm cutoff T2SL design are presented. High sensitivity is demonstrated with a signal to noise ratio (SNR) of 215 @ 50% well fill and a dynamic range of 1750 for a full well size of 118 ke- of the CTIA ROIC. Good uniformity across the detectors is evidenced by narrow SNR histograms, uniform response maps and low signal non-uniformity (~1 %). This work is part of the development route towards large footprint (2048 × 512 pixels, 15 μm pitch) HD space prototype eSWIR FPAs, currently performed within the EU-project STEP (Silicon and T2SL EuroPean collaboration for a non-dependent supply chain for large eSWIR FPAs). In addition, a first preview of the HD FPA performance enabled by IRnova’s midwave infrared (MWIR) T2SL small pitch technology is presented, showing an NETD of 32 mK at 120 K with F/3, 60 Hz and 10 ms integration time.
KEYWORDS: Modulation transfer functions, Medium wave, Dark current, Staring arrays, Quantum efficiency, Temperature metrology, Signal detection, Detector arrays, Infrared detectors, Image quality, Type II superlattice infrared photodetectors
In this paper, the main parameters contributing to the high-imaging quality of IRnova’s Type-II superlattice (T2SL) detectors are studied: the sensitivity, uniformity, modulation transfer function (MTF) and random telegraph signal (RTS). High-sensitivity and good uniformity across the detectors are displayed by their low-noise equivalent temperature difference (NETD) with average values of 22 mK (@ F/5.5, 125 K) and very narrow histograms. MTF values very close to the ideal ones have been demonstrated for Oden MW detectors, reaching 0.6 at the Nyquist frequency, along with a single-digit number of flickering pixels. Furthermore, thanks to the optimization of design and fabrication processes of Oden MW detectors, diffusion-limited dark current densities have been reached that are independent of the perimeter/area ratio for the pitch sizes down to 10 μm. Leveraging this achievement is the upcoming Njord MW HD detector (1280×1024 pixels, 10 μm pitch), for which the bias- and temperature-dependence have been assessed using IRnova’s in-house simulations tools. NETD values lower than 25 mK are shown for temperatures up to 140 K. The simulations were based on measured bias- and temperature- dependencies of the detectors on 10 μm pitch, combined with parameters of the dedicated 1280×1024 ROIC on 10 μm pitch design.
Quantum well infrared photodetector (QWIP) technology is an excellent solution for tactical applications due to the unmatched image uniformity, stability, and pixel operability (typically <99.9%). IRnova have a high-volume production of QWIP detectors in both QVGA and VGA formats since 1999. In 2017 a VGA format QWIP with 15 μm pitch was released, which has demonstrated excellent sensitivity (expressed as noise equivalent temperature difference (NETD)) of 30 mK at F/2 and 100 Hz frame rate. QWIPs also enable compact designs for polarimetric imaging by implementing polarization-sensitive lamellar gratings directly onto the detector pixels. Such polarimetric LWIR detectors (peak absorption at 8.5 μm) have been fabricated at IRnova as both QVGA and VGA format FPAs on 30 and 15 μm pitch, respectively. Polarimetric imaging with these detectors is demonstrated in this work, showing polarimetric contrast as high as 57±5 % for the QVGA format detectors, while the VGA format arrays provide enhanced spatial resolution at the expense of a lower polarization contrast (≈21±2 %). Finally, to meet the demand of highly sensitive and reliable HD LWIR detectors, a 1280×1024 QWIP detector on 10 μm pitch is the next targeted format of IRnova’s QWIP sensors. In this work, the anticipated performance of such detectors will be presented based on the simulation result using the in-house developed tools. The modelling takes into account the relevant ROIC parameters, as well as scaling of the detector performance with pixel size.
In 2019, IRnova announced the serial production of Oden MW, a reduced SWaP (Size, Weight and Power) integrated detector dewar cooler assembly. Oden MW relies on HOT T2SL array (640 × 512, 15 μm pitch) with full MWIR spectral band coverage (3-5 µm) without compromises on electro-optical performances. Ever since, IRnova maintained significant research efforts to further reduce the SWaP footprint, focusing on increased focal plane operating temperature above 110 K, targeting lower demand for cryocooling power thus further reducing overall power consumption. This has now resulted in small pitch T2SL detector arrays with diffusion limited dark current density, which is approaching the Rule07 with a level of around 6.5 × 10-6 A/cm2 at 150 K and a box quantum efficiency (3-5 μm) as high as 67 %. Excellent performance is demonstrated for 640 × 512, 15 μm pitch FPAs with average temporal NETD and spatial NETD values of 21 mK and 6 mK, respectively, when measured with F/5.5 aperture and 60 Hz frame rate at 140 K. These NETD values are insensitive to the temperature in the 80 K – 140 K range. High uniformity and excellent operability (~ 99.84 %) were also obtained at 140 K. In addition, arrays with 10 μm pitch were fabricated which showed similar dark current values, clearly demonstrating material maturity for the short coming small pitch HD HOT T2SL detectors at IRnova.
In 2019, IRnova launched a full-scale production of a reduced size, weight and power integrated detector dewar cooler assemblies (Oden MW; VGA format with 15 μm pixel pitch) covering the full mid-wavelength infrared spectral domain (3.7 μm – 5.1 μm). Oden MW exhibits excellent performance with operating temperatures up to 110 K at F/5.5 with typical values of temporal and spatial noise equivalent temperature of 22 mK and 7 mK, respectively, and an operability higher than 99.85%. More recently, IRnova developed a new detector design with a cut-off wavelength of 5.3 μm which can potentially allow an operating temperature of the detector up to 150K with excellent performance demonstrated on single pixels with a quantum efficiency as high as 46% at 4 µm without antireflection coating, a turn on bias lower than -100 mV and a dark current density as low as 8 × 10-6 A/cm2, which is a factor of < 5 higher than Rule07. The dark current was also found independent of the device size ranging from 10 μm to 223 μm indicating that surface leakage currents are not limiting the dark current. The achievable operating temperature of an FPA made of this new detector design has been estimated to be <150 K with F/5.5 optics. These outstanding results demonstrate that this new generation of detector design is an excellent candidate for future high operating temperature and high-definition focal plane array.
Midwave infrared (MWIR) type-II superlattices (T2SL) have revolutionized the market with possibility of low Size, Weight and Power (SWaP) detectors. IRnova currently has a full-scale production of SWaP T2SL detectors (Oden MW, 640×512 on 15μm pitch), which have demonstrated excellent performance for operating temperatures up to 110 K at F/5.5. Development of high-resolution detectors with small pixel pitch (HD, 1280×1024 pixels) for MWIR as well as long wave and very long wave infrared (LWIR/VLWIR) detection is currently ongoing. In this paper, it has been demonstrated that the low dark current density and high sensitivity needed for high operating temperatures are maintained also for these small pixel pitch detectors, which makes IRnova’s T2SL technology fully compatible with next generation HD detectors.
In this paper, results from the development of InAs/GaSb superlattice focal plane arrays (FPAs) at IRnova will be presented. A versatile and robust detector design is used that allows for adjustment of the detection cut-off wavelength from 2.5 μm up to 14.5 μm with only minor changes in the detector design. Performance of the fabricated detectors has been reviewed in terms of external quantum efficiency (EQE), dark current and noise for three designs with cut-off wavelengths of 4, 5.5 and 11 μm at 80 K (referred to as DEEP BLUE, RED HOT and VLWIR, respectively). Measurements on the 15 μm sized photodiodes demonstrated 70% EQE for the MWIR designs, and almost 40% - for VLWIR. At the same time, the dark current stayed close to the Rule07 benchmark for all studied samples. Noise mechanisms have been discussed and their relation to the passivation was examined. Mature in-house processing and passivation technique of resulted in very high spatial uniformity of VGA focal plane arrays (FPAs), i.e. low relative deviations of EQE (< 6%) and of dark current density (< 12%) and narrow noise distributions for both RED HOT and DEEP BLUE FPAs. We show also that <99.5% of these arrays operate close to the fundamental noise limit.
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