Proceedings Article | 18 June 2013
P. Klipstein, Y. Gross, D. Aronov, M. ben Ezra, E. Berkowicz, Y. Cohen, R. Fraenkel, A. Glozman, S. Grossman, O. Klin, I. Lukomsky, T. Marlowitz, L. Shkedy, I. Shtrichman, N. Snapi, A. Tuito, M. Yassen, E. Weiss
KEYWORDS: Sensors, Staring arrays, Mid-IR, Signal to noise ratio, Temperature metrology, Single crystal X-ray diffraction, Atmospheric sensing, Diffusion, Gallium antimonide, Atmospheric optics
Over the past few years, a new type of High Operating Temperature (HOT) photon detector has been developed at SCD,
which operates in the blue part of the MWIR window of the atmosphere (3.4-4.2 μm). This window is generally more
transparent than the red part of the MWIR window (4.4-4.9 μm), especially for mid and long range applications. The
detector has an InAsSb active layer, and is based on the new "XBn" device concept. We have analyzed various electrooptical
systems at different atmospheric temperatures, based on XBn-InAsSb operating at 150K and epi-InSb at 95K,
respectively, and find that the typical recognition ranges of both detector technologies are similar. Therefore, for very
many applications there is no disadvantage to using XBn-InAsSb instead of InSb. On the other hand XBn technology
confers many advantages, particularly in low Size, Weight and Power (SWaP) and in the high reliability of the cooler
and Integrated Detector Cooler Assembly (IDCA). In this work we present a new IDCA, designed for 150K operation.
The 15 μm pitch 640×512 digital FPA is housed in a robust, light-weight, miniaturised Dewar, attached to Ricor's
K562S Stirling cycle cooler. The complete IDCA has a diameter of 28 mm, length of 80 mm and weight of < 300 gm.
The total IDCA power consumption is ~ 3W at a 60Hz frame rate, including an external miniature proximity card
attached to the outside of the Dewar. We describe some of the key performance parameters of the new detector,
including its NETD, RNU and operability, pixel cross-talk, and early stage yield results from our production line.
