ABSTRACT
The two main advantages of QWIPs are (a) the maturity of the GaAs-based III-V technology, which enables us to fabricate large detector arrays with excellent homogeneity, high pixel operability, low fixed-pattern noise, and high spatial resolution, and (b) the excellent operating performance that can be achieved. Using photoconductive GaAs/AlGaAs QWIPs, we have previously demonstrated 256x256 and 640x486 focal-plane array (FPA) cameras with noise equivalent temperature differences (NETD) of better than 10 mK and 20mK, respectively [4,5,6 ,7]. More than 99.9% of the pixels were working properly without any cluster defect. In our cameras, the QWIP FPA is kept at a detector temperature of 60-65 K by a Stirling cooler and operated at a 30-50 Hz frame rate with 10 - 20 ms integration time.
