Abstract
This paper presents recent developments at Commissariat à l’Energie atomique, Laboratoire d’Electronique et de Technologie de l’Information infrared laboratory on processing and characterization of p-on-n HgCdTe (MCT) planar infrared focal plane arrays (FPAs) in short-wave infrared (SWIR) spectral band for the astrophysics applications. These FPAs have been grown using both liquid phase epitaxy and molecular beam epitaxy on a lattice-matched CdZnTe substrate. This technology exhibits lower dark current and lower series resistance in comparison with n-on-p vacancy-doped architecture and is well adapted for low flux detection or high operating temperature. This architecture has been evaluated for space applications in long-wave infrared and very-long-wave infrared spectral bands with cut-off wavelengths from 10 μm up to 17 μm at 78 K and is now evaluated for the SWIR range. The metallurgical nature of the absorbing layer is also examined and both molecular beam epitaxy and liquid phase epitaxy have been investigated. Electro-optical characterizations have been performed on individual photodiodes from test arrays, whereas dark current investigation has been performed with a fully functional readout integrated circuit dedicated to low flux operations.
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Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank the French ministry of defense (DGA), the European Space Agency (ESA), the French “Centre National d’Etudes Spatiales” (CNES) and FOCUS LabEx (FOCal plane arrays for Universe Sensing) ANR-11-LABX-0013 for their funding on parts of this work.
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Cervera, C., Boulade, O., Gravrand, O. et al. Ultra-Low Dark Current HgCdTe Detector in SWIR for Space Applications. J. Electron. Mater. 46, 6142–6149 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11664-016-4936-0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11664-016-4936-0