Experimental comparison of staring IR sensor technologies including PV HgCdTe, PV InGaAs, and quantum well GaAs/AlGaAs

We compare several key infrared detector technologies versus operating temperature and background flux via hybrid FPA test at operating temperatures from 32.5 K to room temperature and photon backgrounds from mid-105 to approximately equal to 1017 photons/cm2-sec. The detector materials include photovoltaic (PV) HgCdTe/Al2O3, PV HgCdTe/CdZnTe, photoconductive (PC) GaAs/AlGaAs quantum well infrared photodetector (QWIP) and PV InGaAs/InP; the device sizes range from 64 multiplied by 64 to 1024 multiplied by 1024.© (1995) COPYRIGHT SPIE--The International Society for Optical Engineering. Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.