HDVIP five-micron pitch HgCdTe focal plane arrays

Infrared detector pixel pitch has been decreasing, driven by interest in higher resolution, larger displays, and decreased cost. Previous generations of focal plane arrays (FPAs) were on 50, 40, 30, and 20μm pitch. 12μm pitch FPAs are now available. DRS Network and Imaging Systems has developed ultra-small 5μm pitch infrared detectors for the long-wave infrared (LWIR) and medium-wave infrared (MWIR) bands as part of the DARPA AWARE Lambda Scale effort. The smaller pitch was achieved using DRS’ high-density vertically integrated photodiode (HDVIP®) architecture. This technology is a major advance in the state of the art for infrared imaging sensors. The pixel density of 4 million pixels/cm2 enables the production of lower cost FPAs from HDTV resolution up to many millions of pixels. Dark current, collection efficiency, cross-talk, and operability are similar to larger pitch HDVIP FPAs.