Commercial production of QWIP wafers by molecular beam epitaxy

As the performance of quantum well infrared photodetectors (QWIPs) and QWIP -based imaging systems continues to improve, their demand will undoubtedly grow. This points to the importance of a reliable commercial supplier of se miconductor QWIP material on three inch and, in the near future, four-inch substrates. Molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) is the preferred technique for gro wing the demanding QWIP structure, as tight control is required over the ma terial composition and layer thickness. We report the current status of MBE -grown GaAs-based QWIP structures in a commercial production environment at IQE. Uniformity data and run-to-run reproducibility on both three-inch and four-inch GaAs substrates are quantified using alloy composition and QW th ickness. Initial results on growth technology transfer to a multi-wafer MBE reactor are also presented. High-resolution X-ray diffraction measurements demonstrate GaAs QW thickness variations and AlGaAs barrier compositions c hanges to be less than 4% and 1% Al, respectively, across four-inch QWIP wa fers from both single- and multiple-wafer MBE platforms. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.