Development and Production of Array Barrier Detectors at SCD

XBn or XBp barrier detectors exhibit diffusion limited dark currents comparable with mercury cadmium
telluride (MCT) Rule-07 and high quantum efficiencies. In 2011, SemiConductor Devices (SCD) introduced
“HOT Pelican D”, a 640x512/15μm pitch InAsSb/AlSbAs XBn mid-wave infrared (MWIR) detector with a 4.2
μm cut-off and an operating temperature of ~150 K. Its low power (~3W), high pixel operability (>99.5%) and
long mean time to failure (MTTF) make HOT Pelican D a highly reliable integrated detector-cooler product
with a low size, weight and power (SWaP). More recently “HOT Hercules” was launched with a
1280x1024/15μm format and similar advantages. A 3 Megapixel, 10 μm pitch version (“HOT Blackbird”) is
currently completing development. For long-wave infrared (LWIR) applications, SCD’s 640x512/15μm pitch
“Pelican-D LW” XBp type II superlattice (T2SL) detector has a ~9.3 μm cut-off wavelength. The detector
contains InAs/GaSb and InAs/AlSb T2SLs, and is fabricated into focal plane array (FPA) detectors using
standard production processes including hybridization to a digital silicon read out integrated circuit (ROIC),
glue underfill and substrate thinning. The ROIC has been designed so that the complete detector closely
follows the interfaces of SCD’s MWIR Pelican-D detector family. The Pelican-D LW FPA has a quantum
efficiency of ~50%, and operates at 77K with a pixel operability of >99% and noise equivalent temperature
difference (NETD) of 13mK at 30Hz and F/2.7.

Key Words: Infrared detector, Barrier Detector, XBn, XBp, Megapixel, MWIR, LWIR, Type II superlattice

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