design and fabrication of a SWIR focal plane array from nanocrystals – NITquantum

The NITquantum project aims to design a new generation of low-cost infrared sensor operating in the short-wave infrared (1.7 µm cut off wavelength). The goal is to use narrow band gap nanocrystals as building block. Compared to current materials used for infrared sensing the change of material reduces the cost of fabrication of the active layer and do not need the hybridization step with the read-out circuit.
The project will be conducted jointly between Institute for nanoscience of Paris (INSP) and New Imaging Technologies (NIT). INSP is a leading team in the field of infrared sensing using colloidal nanocrystals while NIT is an SME company dedicated to the design of visible and near infrared sensors and camera. The consortium thus aggregates all the skills and know-how required for the project. This project is also enabled by recent joint preliminary results obtained by the consortium with the demonstration of a first focal plane array coupling NIT’s readout circuit and INSP nanocrystals. To make the project successful, we include from the beginning constrains coming from the colloidal material on the one hand and from the read out circuit on the other hand.
The goal of the project is to push the technological readiness level (TRL) of this device from basic concept (1-2) to level 4-5.