1/f noise QWIP infrared focal plane arrays

Summary form only given. The low-frequency noise (also known as pink noise or flicker noise) is a ubiquitous phenomenon and the spectral power density of this fluctuation process is inversely proportional to the frequency of the signal. In this paper, 1/f noise of 640x512 pixel quantum well infrared photodetectors focal plane arrays (QWIP FPA) is determined by measuring the signal in regular time intervals up to twelve hours. Experimental observations show that this LWIR QWIP FPA's 1/f noise corner frequency is about 0.1 mHz. The detector pixels completely turned off when ROIC is biased at 4V. Thus, the difference in power spectral densities between 6V and 4V yields the noise spectrum of the QWIPs. The 1/f noise corner frequency of 0.1 mHz is two orders of magnitude better than the previously reported results by Ressler et al.. With this kind of low frequency stability, QWIPs could unveil a new class of infrared applications that have never been imagined before. Furthermore, results from a similar 1/f noise measurement of bulk InAsSb absorber (lattice matched to GaSb substrate) nBn detector array are presented.