Focal plane arrays fabricated in Hg_1-xCd_xTe have matured to the point where they are entering pilot production for military and civilian applications. Loral chose the p-on-n heterostructure photodiode architecture produced by a two step LPE process for production scale-up because of its demonstrated high performance over a broad range of cut-off wavelengths from approximately equals 4 micrometers to > 15 micrometers . To meet the manufacturing requirements of high throughput and flexibility, Loral has successfully scaled and transferred into production, both tellurium rich horizontal slider (for growth of the active n-type base layer) and mercury rich vertical dipping (for growth of the p-type cap layer) technologies. This approach capitalizes on the advantages of each process to maximize the producibility of LPE films in a manufacturing environment. This paper discusses the advantages of horizontal Te-rich growth. Production reactors have demonstrated excellent compositional uniformity (+/- 0.005 in x) over 24 cm². Issues related to the scale-up of the equipment are discussed.

Date Published: 13 July 1994
PDF: 11 pages
Proc. SPIE 2228, Producibility of II-VI Materials and Devices, (13 July 1994); doi: 10.1117/12.179678

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 2228:
Producibility of II-VI Materials and Devices
Herbert K. Pollehn; Raymond S. Balcerak, Editor(s)