640 x 512 dual-band midwave and longwave infrared focal plane array at i3system

Abstract

Each MWIR and LWIR detectror, which is widely used in various civil and military including chemical identification, atmospheric monitoring, guided weapon and surveillance reconnaissance systems, is advantageous for detecting hot and cool targets, respectively. Dual-band or multi-band detector that is able to detect more than two bands with only single detector has excellent recognition and identification capablities. Therefore, various groups have studied dual-band or multi-band detector since 1998. In this work, a 20 μm 640×512 dual-band midwave and longwave infrared detector with nBn structure was studied. A nBn detector is not only effective in reducing dark current, but it is relatively simple to implement a dual-band detector by growing MWIR and LWIR absorber layers on both sides of a barrier layer. The dual-band detector acquires each MWIR and LWIR bands by selecting the applied bias direction. Consequently, the 20 μm 640×512 dual-band MWIR/LWIR FPA hybridized to read-out integrated circuit (ROIC) exhibited that an average noise equivalent temperature difference (NETD) and operability of both MWIR and LWIR modes were less than 25 mK and more than 99.5 %, respectively.