Nowadays, the detection in the infrared band (IR) has shown great importance in several areas such as skin illnesses detection, remote sensor and in different military devices. The responsible for such detection is, basically, photodetector arrays (FPA) sensitive to infrared radiation. This paper presents a modular and adaptative test-bed, based upon an arrangement of 24 electro and optical components divided in four major functional blocks, providing methodological procedures that allows an accurate design verification of infra-red photodetectors. The target metric that the system is conceived to provide is Responsivity. In essence, the developed system differs from the previous ones by its adaptability and its hardware modularity conception that allows an easy reconfiguration to test different kinds of photodetectors. Here we compare a theoretical calculation of responsivity with actual experimental measurements, allowing low temperature measurements between 16K and 100K, in wavelength from 0.7μm up to 12μm (0.8μm to 1.0μm in this work) and the possibility to set detectors with up to 10 I/O electric terminals. The operational validation of this test-bed is achieved with a studied Quantum Well Infrared Photodetectors (QWIP), exhibiting high compliance with the expected theoretical results.

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This paper presents the design and characterization of a near infrared (NIR) tunable quantum well infrared photodetector (QWIP). The detection was achieved using interband electron transitions between quantized energy levels for holes (light and heavy) in the valence band and quantized energy levels for electrons in the conduction band. The quantum wells are made asymmetric (step wells) to allow transitions between energy levels with different parity quantum numbers. The structure is modeled by solving self-consistently the Schrodinger and Poisson equations with the help of the shooting method. The photocurrent of the fabricated GaAslInGaAs photodetector is measured at the temperature of 10 K and the observed response lies between 825 and 940 nm. When the bias is 0.5 V, a narrow response centered in 840 nm is achieved. Applying 4.5 V the peak response moves to 930 nm, The results demonstrate the possibility of tunable detection in the NIR band with great versatility.

Nowadays, the detection in the infrared band (IR) has shown great importance in several areas such as skin illnesses detection, remote sensor and in different military devices. The responsible for such detection is, basically, photodetector arrays (FPA) sensitive to infrared radiation. This paper presents a modular and adaptative test-bed, based upon an arrangement of 24 electro and optical components divided in four major functional blocks, providing methodological procedures that allows an accurate design verification of infra-red photodetectors. The target metric that the system is conceived to provide is Responsivity. In essence, the developed system differs from the previous ones by its adaptability and its hardware modularity conception that allows an easy reconfiguration to test different kinds of photodetectors. This test-bed shows to be a truthful tool to support designers in the development of photodetectors, allowing low temperature measurements up to 10K with an accuracy of 0.05K, broadband radiation possibilities in wavelength from 700nm up to 15ȝm with an accuracy of 1nm and the possibility to set detectors with up to 10 I/O electric terminals and a photocurrent as small as 2fA. The operational validation of this test-bed is achieved with an already studied QWIP, exhibiting high compliance with the expected theoretical results.