The degradation associated with prolonged operation of GaAs diodes under large forward bias has been investigated. It is observed that the degradation rate increases with temperature and that the fractional percent degradation per unit time interval increases as exp (−E0/KT) for most devices. The value of E0 is about 0.45 ± 0.1 eV. It is shown that contamination of devices with copper increases the degradation rate. The 1.28-eV emission band in the degraded Cu-contaminated devices is enhanced relative to the band-edge emission at low temperatures. A Cu-contamination model for the degradation is considered which shows agreement with experimental data. Accordingly, the degradation is attributed to the diffusion of interstitial copper ions in the p region of the devices toward the junction during operation at high-current densities.

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A monolithic 128 x 128 InSb array is described for staring infrared imaging systems operating in the 3 -5pm spectral region. The array is fabricated with only 4 mask levels and has almost 5 times higher responsivity and nearly 14 times greater wafer yield as compared to a previous design. The higher responsivity has resulted in demonstration of significantly improved thermal imagery.

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