Abstract
We have extended our investigation of corrugated quantum well infrared photodetector focal plane arrays (C-QWIP
FPAs) into the far infrared regime. Specifically, we are developing the detectors for the Thermal Infrared Sensor (TIRS)
used in the Landsat Data Continuity Mission. This mission requires infrared detection cutoff at 12.5 μm and FPAs
operated at 43 K. To maintain a low dark current in these extended wavelengths, we adopted a low doping density of
0.6 × 1018 cm-3 and a bound-to-bound state detector in one of the designs. The internal absorption QE is calculated to be
25.4% for a pixel pitch of 25 microns and 60 periods of QWs. With a pixel fill factor of 80% and a substrate
transmission of 70.9%, the external QE is 14.4%. To yield the theoretical conversion efficiency CE, the
photoconductive gain was measured and is 0.25 at 5 V, from which CE is predicted to be 3.6%. This value is in
agreement with the 3.5% from the FPA measurement. Meanwhile, the dark current is measured to be 2.1 × 10-6 A/cm2 at
43 K. For regular infrared imaging above 8 μm, the FPA will have an NETD of 16 mK at 2 ms integration time in the
presence of 260 read noise electrons, and it increases to 22 mK at 51 K. The highest operability of the tested FPAs is
99.967%. With the CE agreement, we project the FPA performance in the far infrared regime up to 30 μm cutoff.
