Design and development of wafer-level short wave infrared micro-camera

Low cost IR Sensors are needed for a variety of Defense and Commercial Applications as low cost imagers for various Army and Marine missions. SiGe based IR Focal Planes offers a low cost alternative for developing wafer-level shortwave infrared micro-camera that will not require any cooling and can operate in the Visible-NIR band. The attractive features of SiGe based IRFPA’s will take advantage of Silicon based technology, that promises small feature size and compatibility with the low power silicon CMOS circuits for signal processing. SiGe technology offers a low cost alternative for developing Visible-NIR sensors that will not require any cooling and can operate from 0.4- 1.7 microns. The attractive features of SiGe based IRFPA’s will take advantage of Silicon based technology that can be processed on 12-inch silicon substrates, that can promise small feature size and compatibility with the Silicon CMOS circuit for signal processing. In this paper, we will discuss the design and development of Wafer-Level Short Wave Infrared (SWIR) Micro-Camera. We will discuss manufacturing approaches and sensor configurations for short wave infrared (SWIR) focal plane arrays (FPAs) that significantly reduce the cost of SWIR FPA packaging, optics and integration into micro-systems.