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MBE CdTe on Compliant Substrates for High Performance IRFPAs

Award Information

Agency:
Department of Defense 		Branch:
Missile Defense Agency 		Award ID:
 Program Year/Program:
2011 / STTR
Agency Tracking Number:
B11A-002-0002 		Solicitation Year:
2011 		Solicitation Topic Code:
MDA11-T002 		Solicitation Number:
2011.A
Small Business Information
EPIR Technologies Inc
590 Territorial Drive, Suite B Bolingbrook, IL -
View profile »
Woman-Owned: No
Minority-Owned: No
HUBZone-Owned: No
 
Phase 1
Fiscal Year: 2011
Title: MBE CdTe on Compliant Substrates for High Performance IRFPAs
Agency / Branch: DOD / MDA
Contract: HQ0147-11-C-7668
Award Amount: $100,000.00
 

Abstract:

Current state-of-the-art infrared focal plane arrays are based on HgCdTe grown on bulk CdZnTe substrates. The use of Si-based substrates would eliminate a number of drawbacks related to the HgCdTe/CdZnTe system and permit larger formats. We have developed growth protocols that produce material with good crystal quality for such a highly mismatched heteroepitaxial system. Double crystal rocking curves (DCRC), a typical benchmark for crystal quality, are measured with full widths as low as 50 arc seconds. We believe that by transferring this growth process to appropriate compliant substrates, material quality can be significantly improved. The enhanced compliance can significantly alter the forces acting on threading dislocations, facilitating the reduction of dislocations in HgCdTe device layers. Our recent data on molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) growth of thin CdTe layers on compliant substrates shows drastically improved DCRC values are achieved at early stages of growth. We plan to grow optimized material below the 50 arc second DCRC value, while reducing the concentration of macroscopic defects by reduction in the total layer thickness. Other material characteristics such as carrier mobility, lifetime, and etch pit density are typically poorer in HgCdTe/CdTe/Si compared to HgCdTe/CdZnTe, and will be used as diagnostics for optimization.

Principal Investigator:

Richard Kodama
Senior Engineer
(630) 771-0203
contracts@epir.com

Business Contact:

Sivalingam Sivananthan
Chief Executive Officer
(630) 771-0201
ssivananthan@epir.com
Small Business Information at Submission:

EPIR Technologies Inc
590 Territorial Drive, Suite B Bolingbrook, IL -

EIN/Tax ID: 364196918
DUNS: N/A
Number of Employees:
Woman-Owned: No
Minority-Owned: No
HUBZone-Owned: No
Research Institution Information:
University of Illinois at Chicago
1737 W Polk Street
310 AOB, M/C 672
Chicago, IL 60612-7205
Contact: Joe Garcia
Contact Phone: (312) 996-2862