Design and performance of dual-band MWIR/LWIR focal plane arrays based on a type-II superlattice nBn structure

Abstract

Dual-band infrared detector, which acquires more image information than single-band detectors, has excellent detection, recognition, and identification capabilities. The dual-band detector can have two bumps to connect with each absorber layer, but it is difficult to implement small pitch focal plane arrays and its fabrication process is complicated. Therefore, the most effective way for a dual-band detector is to acquire each band by bias-selectable with one bump. To aim this, a dual-band MWIR/LWIR detector based on an InAs/GaSb type-II superlattice nBn structure was designed and its performance was evaluated in this work. Since two absorber layers were separated by the barrier layer, each band can be detected by bias-selectable with one bump. The fabricated dual-band device exhibited the dark current and spectral response characteristics of MWIR and LWIR bands under negative and positive bias, respectively. Spectral crosstalk that is a major issue in dual-band detectors was also improved. Finally, a 20 μm pitch 640 × 512 dual-band detector was fabricated, and both MWIR and LWIR images exhibited an average noise equivalent temperature difference of 30 mK or less at 80 K.