MCT planar p-on-n LW and VLW IRFPAs

In this paper, we report on results obtained both at CEA/LETI and SOFRADIR on p-on-n HgCdTe (MCT) grown by liquid phase epitaxy (LPE) Infra-Red Focal Plane Arrays (IR FPAs) for the Long-wave (LW) and the Very-long-wave (VLW) spectral ranges. For many years, p-on-n arsenic-ion implanted planar technology has been developed and improved within the framework of the joint laboratory DEFIR. Compared to n-on-p, p-on-n technology presents lower dark current and series resistance. Consequently, p-on-n photodiodes are well-adapted for very large FPAs operating either at high temperature or very low flux. The long wave (LW) spectral ranges have been firstly addressed with TV/4, 30 µm pitch FPAs. Our results showed state-of-the-art detector performances, consistent with "Rule 07" law [1], a relevant indicator of the maturity of photodiode technology. The low dark current allows increasing the operating temperature without any degradation of the performances. The subsequent development of p-on-n imagers has produced more compact, less energy consuming systems, with a substantial resolution enhancement. Space applications are another exciting but challenging domains and are good candidates for the p-on-n technology. For this purpose, TV/4 arrays, 30 µm pixel pitch, have been manufactured for the very long wave spectral range. For this detection range, the quality of material and reliability of technology are the most critical. Detectors with different cutoff wavelength have been manufactured to aim 12.5 µm at 78K, 12.5 µm at 40K and 15 µm at 78K. Electro-optical characterizations reveal homogeneous imagers with excellent current operabilities (over 99.9% at best). The results highlight the very good quality of p-on-n technology with carrier diffusion limited dark current, fitting the "Rule 07" law, and high quantum efficiency. Further process developments have been made to improve photodiodes performances. Especially the transition temperature where the dark current shifts from diffusion limited regime to another one, has been lowered by more than 10K. Extremely low dark current has been obtained, down to 50 e-/s/pixel.