Type-II InAs/GaSb photodiodes and focal plane arrays aimed at high operating temperatures

Abstract

Recent efforts to improve the performance of type II InAs/GaSb superlattice photodiodes and focal plane arrays (FPA) have been reviewed. The theoretical bandstructure models have been discussed first. A review of recent developments in growth and characterization techniques is given. The efforts to improve the performance of MWIR photodiodes and focal plane arrays (FPAs) have been reviewed and the latest results have been reported. It is shown that these improvements has resulted in background limited performance (BLIP) of single element photodiodes up to 180 K. FPA shows a constant noise equivalent temperature difference (NEDT) of 11 mK up to 120 K and it shows human body imaging up to 170 K. © 2011 Versita Warsaw and Springer-Verlag Wien.