ANALYSIS OF INTEGRATED QUANTUM-WELL INFRARED PHOTODETECTOR AND LIGHT-EMITTING DIODE FOR IMPLEMENTING PIXELLESS IMAGING DEVICES

The conversion of images into nonuniform distribution of the output cu rrent density in a multiple-quantum-well structure for an infrared pix elless imaging system is considered using an analytical device model, The nonuniform current, which reproduces the incident image, is conver ted back to a light-emitting diode emission image by the device consid ered here, The developed model takes into account transport processes responsible for the device operation, An explicit expression for the c ontrast transfer characteristic is derived as a function of the number of quantum wells (QW's) and the electron capture parameter, It is sho wn that the quality of the up-converted images (contrast and resolutio n) is improved with increasing number of QW's, The pixelless imaging d evices under consideration can effectively convert long-wavelength inf rared images into short-wavelength infrared or visible images with con trast transfer ratio close to unity.