Advanced IR detector design at SCD: from D3C to ABCS

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Over the past 27 years, SCD has developed and manufactured more than 30 types of Infrared Detector, both with support from the Israeli MOD and in cooperation with institutions and companies such as the Technion, Soreq NRC, RICOR and RAFAEL. SCD's current production line includes Hg_1-xCd_xTe (MCT) devices with up to 480x6 elements operating in Time Delay and Integration (TDI) mode and InSb Focal Plane Arrays (FPAs) with up to 640x512 elements, all available in various configurations including fully integrated Detector-Dewar-Cooler (DDC) packages. Such DDCs have been designed to range from the very small to the very large. At one end the Piccolo DDC is a small, low weight and power detector, ideal for compact low cost imagers such as handheld IR cameras. At the other end, we manufacture a very long (2048x16) bi-directional TDI InSb detector designed for "whiskbroom scanning" systems. This device consists of four modules precisely butted on a single substrate, with each 512x16 module connected to a single signal processor. In 2003, SCD announced its new breakthrough Digital Read Out Integrated Circuit (ROIC) technology: Digital DDC or D³C. This readout system, with excellent performance and increased flexibility is the first in a series of new imaging solutions that SCD is developing to meet future demands of noise and power reduction, combined with greater wavelength selectivity. To continue along this path we have also been developing our new ABCS (Antimonide Based Compound Semiconductor) technology, which we first reported in 2002. The ABCS program, combining SCD's existing strengths in InSb FPA systems with new concepts in bandgap engineering and smart structure design, is aimed at multispectral IR detectors operating at higher temperatures. This review discusses some of the key trends at SCD as described above. After surveying the performance of SCD's current InSb technology, SCD's evolution towards the next generations will be described, including the achievements and potential of the D³C and ABCS systems.