Complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor monolithic germanium tin short-wave infrared focal plane array

Infrared (IR) imaging sensors have various applications in both defense and civilian systems. IR sensor focal plane array (FPA) built from Si CMOS-compatible materials is highly desirable as it enables monolithic integration with Si readout integrated circuits (ROICs), and thereby features low-cost, light weight, and high performance. Recent study shows that group-IV alloy GeSn is an excellent candidate for IR CMOS sensor operating from SWIR, MWIR, to LWIR. Leveraging the demonstrated Ge single-chip imaging FPA, the envisioned architecture of GeSn CMOS IR imaging sensors could employ a similar chip design along with changing Ge to GeSn photodetectors. This work presents the feasibility study of GeSn FPA monolithic integration with newly designed Si ROIC and the performance of GeSn IR photodetector on pixel level.