Develops HOT MWIR Software-based Core
No Further MOD Support Expected
Groups Worldwide Vie to Operate Their Cooled FPAs “Less Cool”
Obtaining High Yield with Mercury Cadmium Telluride
Finmeccanica S.p.A. (Italy) has agreed to acquire DRS Technologies for $5.2 billion in cash.
The UK’s Albion program for developing 3rd Gen FPAs has gone into Phase 2 with the award by the UK MOD of a £5.8 million (approximately $10.6 million) three-year contract to prime contractor Selex Sensors and Airborne Systems.
The fabrication of mercury cadmium telluride (MCT) FPAs by MOVPE (Metal Organic Vapor Phase Epitaxy) continues to make rapid progress. Most recently, both Selex Sensors & Airborne Systems, S&AS and QinetiQ have achieved new performance levels with dual-band (MW/LW) FPAs.
Selex Sensors & Airborne Systems, S&AS is continuing to make rapid progress with its process for making mercury cadmium telluride (MCT) FPAs by MOVPE (Metal Organic Vapor Phase Epitaxy) on GaAs substrates. The MOVPE fabrication process, which is being supported by the UK’s 3rd Gen Albion program, has become a viable method for making MCT FPAs with good yield on relatively large substrates.
SELEX Sensors & Airborne Systems has moved its mercury cadmium telluride (MCT) grown by MOVPE (Metal Organic Vapor Phase Epitaxy) on low-cost GaAs substrates into production. The company is now producing 640 x 480 LWIR FPAs - dubbed “Eagle LW”- with a cut-off wavelength of 9.7µm.
Infrared sights for future soldier systems in several European countries are moving ahead rapidly after initially being delayed due to the lack of available uncooled focal plane arrays.
SELEX Sensors & Airborne Systems is moving ahead in the UK’s Albion program for the development of 3rd Gen FPAs based on mercury cadmium telluride (MCT) FPAs grown by MOVPE (Metal Organic Vapor Phase Epitaxy). After experimenting with both GaAs and GaAs:Si (GaAs on silicon) substrates, researchers have settled on the GaAs substrates because of the lower defect levels and the better stability of defect levels at storage temperatures to 100ºC.