Design and Development of High Gain AlGaN Avalanche Photodiode Arrays

Future NASA missions that include Explorers, Discovery, Cosmic Origins, Vision Missions and Earth Sciences, and Planetary Science Missions will benefit from development of High Gain AlGaN UV APD Arrays. High resolution imaging in Ultraviolet (UV) band has a lot of potential applications for various NASA systems. UV band offers exciting opportunities for NASA systems as one can use short wavelength and various solar blind regions for high spatial resolution. As part of the proposed NASA Phase I SBIR program, Magnolia working with Professor Russell Dupuis of Georgia Tech will model, design and develop high performance with high gain GaN/AlGaN UVAPD's that can be implemented in future NASA missions.

Future NASA missions will require UV APD detector arrays that also have very high gain. AlGaN based UVAPD's offers wide choices for fine-tuning the bands of interest in UV band. This will allow precise detection of UV signatures. With AlGaN UVAPD, the wavelength can be tuned to the band of interest in UV band. The objective of the Proposed NASA Phase I SBIR is to model, design and develop the necessary technology for high performance GaN/AlGaN small pixel size UVAPD's that can be implemented in future NASA System Applications. As part of the Phase I SBIR effort, Magnolia will work with the NASA Program Manager to define the system applications of interest and use the technology development effort to support the NASA mission. Magnolia has an excellent team to carry out the proposed Phase I technical effort. Dr. Ashok Sood will be the Principal Investigator at Magnolia for the technical effort. The team includes Professor Russell Dupuis of Georgia Tech, a world renowned expert in development of GaN/AlGaN materials for APD's and related devices.

UV Detectors and Sensors are useful in a wide variety of industrial, military, and scientific applications where detection of UV radiation plays a key role. Most of these applications for detection and/or measurement require high performance UV Sensors Systems.. Ultraviolet high gain APD arrays capture unique target signatures, which provide critical information for several applications that include machine vision, solar blind imaging, and chemical and biological applications for detection of surface residues and biological agents. The market for AlGaN based UVAPD Sensors is expected to grow rapidly over the next 10 years

This is early/mid-stage (TRL 6) — the most realistic path in is NASA SBIR/STTR, which funds small businesses and research institutions to develop technology aligned with NASA's needs (equity-free, phased funding). Check whether a current SBIR/STTR solicitation topic overlaps with this project's technology area, or contact the project directly (above) to ask.

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