The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Jun. 29, 2010
Filed:
Jan. 16, 2007
Sumith V. Bandara, Valencia, CA (US);
Sarath Gunapala, Stevenson Ranch, CA (US);
John K. Liu, Pasadena, CA (US);
Sumith V. Bandara, Valencia, CA (US);
Sarath Gunapala, Stevenson Ranch, CA (US);
John K. Liu, Pasadena, CA (US);
California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA (US);
Abstract
A quantum well infrared photodetector (QWIP) focal plane array having structures, each structure having stacked layers of quantum wells and a reflective grating to provide polarization sensitivity. The reflective grating is etched to provide electrical contacts for individual pixels. The reflective gratings comprise grooves, where the grooves for a particular structure run in a particular direction to provide polarization sensitivity. Each structure may comprise groups of quantum well layers, each group sensitive to a particular frequency band. By shorting out unwanted quantum well layers, and by forming the reflective gratings to come into contact with the quantum well layers having a particular frequency band sensitivity, the pixels in the QWIP focal plane array may provide frequency and polarization information.