Amplification Technologies Inc ("ATI") proposes to develop the enabling material and device technology for the design of ultra low noise, high gain and high speed near-infrared single photon counting photodetectors and arrays sensitive in the 1000 nm to 1600 nm spectral region for long range space communication applications, based on the already proven mechanism of internal discrete amplification technology in InGaAs/InP material system. We plan to achieve this by designing the InGaAs/InP internal discrete amplifier photodetector and photodector array device structure by building on the design that gave promising results to prove the concept of internal discrete amplification mechanism in the InP material system. The primary accomplishments from the Phase I effort would be the development of ultra low noise (low jitter), high detection efficiency, very high gain and high speed near-infrared photodetectors and arrays sensitive in the 1000 nm and 1600 nm spectral region. The technology of internal discrete amplification enables the combination of high speed, very high gain and ultra low noise. This is possible because the internal discrete amplification nullifies the effect of impact ionization coefficients and prevents the edge break down, with high detection efficiency and high speed of operation. These photodetectors might also be used in missile seekers, battlefield target identification and recognition systems, and eye-safe LADAR. Potential civilian applications include fiber-optic telecommunications, remote sensing and laser spectroscopy.
