A Short-Wave Infrared Nanoinjection Imager With 2500 A/W Responsivity and Low Excess Noise

Memiş, Ömer Gökalp; Kohoutek, John; Wu, Wei; Gelfand, Ryan M.; Mohseni, Hooman

doi:10.1109/jphot.2010.2073695

Cited by 16 publications

(15 citation statements)

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“…To form an infrared camera (Memis et al, 2010a), after characterization of individual electron-injection detectors, 320 by 240 pixel arrays of detectors were formed with 30-μm pixel pitch. The FPA common plane was connected to the backside contacts through the highly doped graded layer of InGaAs, which is at the interface of InP substrate and the InGaAs absorber.…”

Section: First-generation Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, cooling the electron-injection detector to −75°C, resulted in improvement of SNR by two orders of magnitude compared with the commercial SWIR camera (1656 versus 17.1) ( Figure 8B). This is the result of the internal amplification in the electron-injection imager (Memis et al, 2010a).…”

Section: First-generation Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…It is illustrated that the second-generation detector provides more than two orders of magnitudes reduction of the dark current at any temperature. Furthermore, no sign of surface leakage limited dark current, which would result in a significant change in the slope of the plot, is observed (Memis et al, 2010a).…”

Section: Dark Current and Gain Characteristicsmentioning

confidence: 94%

“…As a result, when utilized in large format FPAs, the electron-injection detector gain does not vary much by the voltage and process variations across the FPA. Figure 10C compares the dark current as a function of temperature for the first and the second-generation detectors (Memis et al, 2010a;Fathipour et al, 2014,b). It is illustrated that the second-generation detector provides more than two orders of magnitudes reduction of the dark current at any temperature.…”

Section: Dark Current and Gain Characteristicsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…EI detectors operate by absorbing photons in a large volume, confining the photo-excited holes into a small sensor, and then amplifying the signal through electroninjection. Detector output pulse is intrinsically proportional to the number of photons absorbed (Memis et al, 2008b(Memis et al, , 2010aFathipour et al, 2013a;Fathipour and Mohseni, 2015b). Due to the different charge-carrier multiplication process compared to an APD, EI detectors have typically a lower bandwidth [approximately few nano second rise time at 20 μW optical power at 1550 nm (Movassaghi et al, 2016)].…”

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Advances on Sensitive Electron-Injection Based Cameras for Low-Flux, Short-Wave Infrared Applications

2016

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Short-wave infrared (SWIR) photon detection has become an essential technology in the modern world. Sensitive SWIR detector arrays with high pixel density, low noise levels, and high signal-to-noise-ratios are highly desirable for a variety of applications including biophotonics, light detection and ranging, optical tomography, and astronomical imaging. As such many efforts in infrared detector research are directed toward improving the performance of the photon detectors operating in this wavelength range. We review the history, principle of operation, present status, and possible future developments of a sensitive SWIR detector technology, which has demonstrated to be one of the most promising paths to high pixel density focal plane arrays (FPAs) for low flux applications. The so-called electron-injection (EI) detector was demonstrated for the first time in 2007. It offers an overall system-level sensitivity enhancement compared to the p-i-n diode due to a stable internal avalanche-free gain. The amplification method is inherently low noise, and devices exhibit an excess noise of unity. The detector operates in linear-mode and requires only bias voltage of a few volts. This together with the feedback stabilized gain mechanism, makes formation of large-format high pixel density electr on-injection FPAs less challenging compared to other detector technologies such as avalanche photodetectors. Detector is based on the mature InP material system and has a cutoff wavelength of 1700 nm. The layer structure consists of 500 nm InP injector/50 nm InAlAs etch stop/50 nm GaAsSb electron barrier (and hole trap)/1 μm InGaAs absorber. The epitaxial layers are grown on InP substrates. Electron-injection detector takes advantage of a unique three-dimensional geometry and combines the efficiency of a large absorbing volume with the sensitivity of a low-dimensional switch (injector) to sense and amplify signals. EI detectors have been designed, fabricated, and tested during two generations of development and optimization cycles. We review our imager results using the firstgeneration detectors. In the second-generation devices, the dark current is reduced by two orders of magnitude, and bandwidth is improved by four orders of magnitude. The dark current density of the second-generation EI detector is shown to outperform the stateof-the-art technology, the SWIR HgCdTe eAPD by more than one order of magnitude. We demonstrate a performance comparison with other SWIR detector technologies with internal amplification and show that the electron-injection detectors offer more than three orders of magnitude better noise-equivalent sensitivity compared with state-of-the-art phototransistors operating at similar temperature. Second-generation devices provide high-speed response ~6 ns rise time, low jitter ~12 ps, high amplification of more than FiGURe 1 | The trend in noise reduction for state-of-the-art SwiR imaging arrays with cutoff wavelength (λc) ~1-1.5 μm over the past 30 years: the equivalent input noise of the ROiC determines the ...

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Section: First-generation Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: First-generation Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Dark Current and Gain Characteristicsmentioning

confidence: 94%

Section: Dark Current and Gain Characteristicsmentioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

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