HgCdTe offers significant advantages over other similar semiconductors, which has made it the most widely utilized variable-gap material in infrared (IR) focal plane array (FPA) technology. HgCdTe hybrid FPAs consisting of two-dimensional detector arrays that are hybridized to Si readout circuits (ROIC) are the dominant technology for second-generation infrared systems. However, one of the main limitations of the HgCdTe materials system has been the size of lattice-matched bulk CdZnTe substrates, used for epitaxially grown HgCdTe, which have been limited to 30 cm 2 in production. This size limitation does not adequately support the increasing demand for larger FPA formats which now require sizes up to 2048 3 2048, and only a single die can be printed per wafer. Heteroepitaxial Si-based substrates offer a cost-effective technology that can be scaled to large wafer sizes and further offer a thermalexpansion-matched hybrid structure that is suitable for large format FPAs. This paper presents data on molecular-beam epitaxy (MBE)-grown HgCdTe/Si wafers with much improved materials characteristics than previously reported. We will present data on 4-and 6-in diameter HgCdTe both with extremely uniform composition and extremely low defects. Large-diameter HgCdTe/Si with nearly perfect compositional uniformity and ultra low defect density is essential for meeting the demanding specifications of large format FPAs.
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