Indigenous Development of 320 x 256 Focal-Plane Array Using InAs/InGaAs/GaAs Quantum Dots-In-A-Well Infrared Detectors for Thermal Imaging

We report here the indigenous development of a 320 x 256 infrared focal-plane imager fabricated using an InAs quantum dots-in-a-well heterostructure, whose photoluminescence peak is at 1162 nm and activation energy is 187 meV. We discuss the fabrication and characterization of single-pixel detectors that can measure intersubband spectral responses with peak intensity at 9.3 μm. Using the fabricated device, infrared images were captured at 50-90 K. Device optimization led to approximately 95% of the pixels in the imaging array being operational and a reasonably low noise equivalent temperature of approximately 100 mK at 50-60 K.