Performance of HgCdTe, InGaAs and quantum well GaAs/AlGaAs staring infrared focal plane arrays

The ability to hybridize various detector arrays in disparate technologies to an assortment of state-of-the-art silicon readouts has enabled direct comparison of key infrared defector technologies including photovoltaic (PV) HgCdTe/Al2O3, PV HgCdTe/CdZnTe, PV InGaAs/InP, and the photoconductive (PC) GaAs/AlGaAs quantum well infrared photodetector (QWIP). The staring focal plane arrays range in size from 64x64 to 1024x1024; we compare these infrared detector technologies versus operating temperature and background flux via hybrid FPA test at operating temperatures from 32.5 K to room temperature and photon backgrounds from mid-10(5) to approximate to 10(17) photons/cm(2)-s. Several state-of-the-art infrared FPAs are included: a 1.7 mu m 128x128 InGaAs hybrid FPA with room temperature D* of 1.5;10(13) cm-Hz(1/2)/W and 195K D* of 1.1x10(15) cm-Hz(1/2)/W; a 3.2 mu m 1024x1024 FPA for surveillance (BLIP D* of 2.3x10(13) cm-Hz(1/2)/W at 115K at similar to 10(11) photons/cm(2)-s background); a 4.6 mu m 256x256 HgCdTe/Al2O3 FPA for imaging with BLIP NE Delta T of 2.8 mK at 95K; and a 9 mu m 128x128 GaAs QWIP FPA with. 32.5 K D* >10(14) cm-Hz(1/2)/W at 32.5K and 8x10(10) cm-Hz(1/2)/W at 62K.