NSF Award
0339940
This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project will develop a new materials technology to help drive a revolution in infrared microscopy, using a newly developed technique to grow pure germanium on silicon without crystalline defects. Silicon imagers are widely used, from supermarket scanners to the ultra-sensitive CCDs used in astronomy. Germanium is photosensitive over a much wider spectrum, from visible to well into the infrared. Combining this new spectral ability with fine-line silicon manufacturing could turn infrared dusk into broad daylight Characterization and understanding of material grown by this new technique is limited. Controlling leakage is essential to maximize sensitivity. Pixel geometries to best trade off resolution for noise performance must be identified. <br/><br/>The broad impacts from this work would be the near infrared (NIR) and short-wave infrared (SWIR) spectral range from 800 to 1600 nm, which holds considerable scientific and applied interest. Initial applications could be in medical imaging and pharmaceutical inspection leading into a much broader application field including night and fog vision for security, monitoring of crops, pollution and climate, and range-finding for defense and construction applications.
