HgCdTe has been shown to be the first semiconductor exhibiting single-carrier multiplication in avalanche photodiodes (APDs) up to multiplication factors larger than 1000 and with close to zero excess noise. These results have opened a new horizon for low-flux and/or versatile imaging from visible wavelengths up to the infrared cutoff wavelength of the APDs. In this paper we report the first results on mid-wave infrared (MWIR) cutoff wavelength APDs manufactured at Sofradir in collaboration with CEA-LETI. These APDs display high gain and low dispersion on and between wafers. In particular, a record avalanche gain M of over 10,000 is observed for some diode structures. This result provides an additional demonstration of the stability of single-carrier multiplication in HgCdTe and shows that the technological processes used at Sofradir are well adapted to APD manufacturing. A dedicated readout integrated circuit (ROIC) with 384 × 288 format and l5 μm pitch was developed to address both passive amplified imaging and active laser-assisted imaging. Arrays were produced using p-type HgCdTe films grown by liquid-phase epitaxy on CdZnTe substrates. Focal-plane array (FPA) performance is reported for ROICs hybridized with APD arrays manufactured at Sofradir. Operability of the best devices exceeds 99.7% for gains up to 55. Relative dispersions of the gain and ROIC output voltage are lower than 4%. The excess noise factor is lower than 1.4 over this range of gains.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
J.D. Beck, C.-F. Wan, M.A. Kinch, and J.E. Robinson, Proc. SPIE 4454, 188 (2001).
J.D. Beck, C.-F. Wan, M.A. Kinch, J.E. Robinson, P. Mitra, R. Scrithfield, F. Ma, and J. Campbell, J. Electron. Mater. 35, 1166 (2006).
I. Baker, S. Duncan, and J. Copley, Proc. SPIE 5406, 113 (2004).
G. Perrais, O. Gravrand, J. Baylet, G.L. Destefanis, and J. Rothman, J. Electron. Mater. 36, 963 (2007).
M.B. Reine, J.W. Marciniec, K.K. Wong, T. Parodos, J.D. Mullarkey, P.A. Lamarre, S.P. Tobin, and K.A. Gustavsen, J. Electron. Mater. 36, 1059 (2007).
J. Asbrock, S. Bailey, D. Baley, J. Boisvert, G. Chapman, G. Crawford, T. De Lyon, B. Drafahl, J. Edwards, E. Herrin, C. Hoyt, M. Jack, R. Kvaas, K. Liu, W. McKeag, R. Rajavel, V. Randall, S. Rengarajan, and X.X.J. Riker, Proc. SPIE 6940, 69402O (2008).
G.L. Destefanis, J. Cryst. Growth 86, 700 (1987).
M. Vuillermet, L. Rubaldo, F. Chabuel, C. Pautet, J.-C. Terme, L. Mollard, J. Rothman, and N. Baier, Proc. SPIE 8012, 80122W (2011)
J. Rothman, L. Mollard, S. Gout, L. Bonnefond, and J. Wlassow, J. Electron. Mater. 40, 1757 (2011).
G. Perrais, S. Derelle, L. Mollard, J.-P. Chamonal, G. Destefanis, G. Vincent, S. Bernhardt, and J. Rothman, J. Electron. Mater. 38, 1790 (2009).
J. Rothman, E. De Borniol, O. Gravrand, S. Bisotto, L. Mollard, F. Guellec, F. Pistone, S. Courtas, and X. Lefoule, Proc. SPIE 7834, 78340O (2010).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Kerlain, A., Bonnouvrier, G., Rubaldo, L. et al. Performance of Mid-Wave Infrared HgCdTe e-Avalanche Photodiodes. J. Electron. Mater. 41, 2943–2948 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11664-012-2087-5
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11664-012-2087-5