Backside illuminated blocked impurity band infrared detector

Abstract

A rear illuminated radiation detector comprising a rear contact adjacent to a substrate substantially transparent to incident radiation of a given frequency range, detector and blocking layers overlying said rear contact, and a front contact overlying the detector and blocking layers. The layers are disposed so that, through them, the front contact is in electrical contact with the rear contact. Radiation may enter the detector layer from the rear, through the substrate, thereby permitting the detector to be operated in a backside illuminated mode. Such detectors may be fabricated in highly dense arrays and coupled to either hybrid or monolithic readout structures as required for operation as a focal plane array radiation detector. Optionally, the front contact may be left exposed so that radiation may enter the detector layer from the front of the radiation detector, thereby permitting it to be operated in both backside and frontside illuminated modes.