Sofradir plans new compound semiconductors and Ulis plans for smart sensors
Not Just MCT
Uncooled microbolometer development in France has been very rapid partly because of the cooperation between the CEA/Leti labs and Ulis
General Electric’s GE Commercial Finance is taking a 15% minority stake in Ulis, the supplier of uncooled amorphous silicon microbolometers.
Manufacturers of uncooled microbolometers are racing to develop and introduce focal plane arrays with 17 micron pixels. The smaller size pixels are seen by producers as a way to differentiate their products and as a path to lower cost and higher volume markets.
Amorphous silicon (a-Si) uncooled microbolometers made by ULIS are increasingly reaching performance levels previously attained only by VOx microbolometers.
Sofradir is starting construction on a new Fab near Grenoble that will double its production capacity of cooled infrared focal plane arrays and position the company to supply 3rd Gen FPAs. The new facility will produce mercury cadmium telluride (MCT) FPAs by Molecular Beam Epitaxy (MBE) on 4” germanium substrates (compared to the currently used 2” CZT substrates).
ULIS has moved it’s large format (640 x 480 with 25 µm pixels) amorphous silicon uncooled microbolometers into production. The chip is based on a single-level microbridge, thus avoiding the complexity and expense of dual-level designs.