DUAL-BAND INFRARED DETECTORS

As the infrared technology continues to advance, there is a growing demand for multispectral detectors for advanced IR systems with better target discrimination and identification. Both HgCdTe detectors and quantum well GaAs/AlGaAs photodetectors offer wavelength flexibility from medium wavelength to very long wavelength and multicolor capability in these regions. The main challenges facing all multicolor devices are more complicated device structtures, thicker and multilayer material growth, and more difficult device fabrication, especially when the array size gets larger and pixel size gets smaller. In the paper recent progress in development of two color HgCdTe photodiodes and quantum well infrared photodetectors is presented. More attention is devoted to HgCdTe detectors. The two color detector arrays are based upon an n P N (the capital letters mean the materials with larger bandgap energy) HgCdTe triple layer heterojunction design. Vertically stacking the two p n junctions permits incorporation of both detectros into a single pixel. Both sequential mode and simultaneous mode detectors are fabricated. The mode of detection is determined by the fabrication process of the multilayer materials. Also the performances of stacked multicolor QWIPs detectors are presented. For multicolor arrays, QWIP’s narrow band spectrum is an advantage, resulting in low spectral crosstalk. The major challenge for QWIP is developing broadband or multicolor optical coupling structures that permit efficient absorption of all required spectral bands.