White Paper: High-Performance MCT Sensors For Demanding Applications

There are a growing number of infrared photovoltaic 2D focal plane array (FPA) detectors commercially available for integration into high performance infrared cameras. Sensor materials include indium gallium arsenide (InGaAs), quantum well infrared photodetector (QWIP), indium antimonide (InSb) and mercury cadmium telluride (MCT). In addition, microbolometers (µB) have also closed the performance gap with photovoltaic detectors, however significant performance differences remain. Proper selection of sensor technology depends on the application and systems requirements.

MCT-based infrared imaging systems offer several key advantages over other sensors for certain applications. Most obvious is that many applications require imaging in the long-wave infrared spectral band.

In addition, a high performance LWIR system also offers a very broad dynamic range capability. Specifically, this is important in those applications in which the object of interest spans a very wide temperature range.