Description
In recent years, the demand for high-performance and cost-effective shortwavelength infrared (SWIR) photodetectors has risen sharply.
The photodetectors currently dominating the market are based on materials such as indium gallium arsenide (InGaAs), indium arsenide (InAs), indium antimonide (InSb) and mercury cadmium telluride (HgCdTe). However, they have many disadvantages:
All SWIR sensors produced today contain toxic elements and are not compatible with scalable standard technologies in the semiconductor industry, particularly CMOS technology, which makes them more expensive to produce. They also require cooling, which significantly increases the size of the component and makes it difficult to integrate the detectors into small applications.
A research group led by Dr. Yonder Berencén has developed a CMOS-compatible technology based on germanium and tin (GeSn) that can be used to produce high-performance, environmentally friendly short wavelength infrared (SWIR) photodetectors at a significantly lower cost than was previously possible.
Following the development of the new sensor material, functional samples of the GeSn photodetector have already been successfully developed and tested. Key performance indicators such as response, wavelength range, cut-off wavelength, peak wavelength, noise equivalent power (NEP), bias voltage and operating temperature have been characterized. Even without cooling, many of these key parameters are in the range of commercial InGaAs detectors and some are even better. The next step is to produce a small series of the detectors and to find interested parties for using the technology as well as interested manufacturers.
Details
- Business Model: auction, direct selling, licensing
- Technology Readiness Level: TRL 5 – Technology validated in relevant environment (prototype available)
- Implementation Time: Medium – can be implemented during one week
Target Customers
- Target Market: B2B
- Target Industry: Aerospace; Chemistry, Pharma & BioTech; Food & Consumer Goods; Health & Medicine; Security & Defense
- Target Group: Enterprise; SME; Business Angel; Venture Capitalist; Corporate VC; Debt Investor; Incubator; Targeted Department; Manufacturing, Production
This offer has also been published on WISAWI – the Saxon Platform for Networking, Know-How, Transfer and Innovation: see the entry here.
