VSWIR TO VLWIR MBE GROWN HGCDTE MATERIAL AND DETECTORS FOR REMOTE-SENSING APPLICATIONS

The molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) growth technology Is inherently flexi ble in its ability to change the Hg1-xCdxTe material's bandgap within a growth run and from growth run to growth run. This bandgap engineeri ng flexibility permits tailoring the device architecture to the variou s specific requirements, Material with active layer x values ranging f rom similar to 0.198 to 0.570 have been grown and processed into detec tors. This wide range in x values is perfectly suited for remote sensi ng applications, specifically the National Polar Orbiting Environmenta l Satellite System (NPOESS) program that requires imaging in a multitu de of infrared spectral bands, ranging from the 1,58 to 1,64 mu m VSWI R (very short wave infrared) band to the 11.5 to 12.5 mu m LWIR (long wave infrared) band and beyond, These diverse spectral bands require h igh performance detectors, operating at two temperatures detectors for the VSWIR band operate near room temperature while the SWIR, MWIR (mi d wave infra red), LWIR and VLWIR (very long wave infrared) detectors operate near 100K, because of constraints imposed by the cooler for th e NPOESS program. This paper uses material parameters to calculate the oretical detector performance for a range of x values, This theoretica l detector performance is compared with median measured detector optic al and electrical data, Measured detector optical and electrical data, combined with noise model estimates of ROIC performance are used to c alculate signal to noise ratio (SNR), for each spectral band, The SNR are compared with respect to the meteorological NPOESS system derived focal plane, The derived system focal plane requirements for NPOESS ar e met in all the spectral bands.