## **CQD SWIR Sensor Technology**

SWIR Vision Systems® has introduced a new class of cameras featuring a 400nm to 1,700nm broadband image sensor technology based on colloidal quantum dot (CQD®) thin film photodiodes fabricated monolithically on silicon readout wafers.

These [sensors](https://www.swirvisionsystems.com/acuros-cqd-swir-sensors/) have the potential to achieve for SWIR imaging, what CMOS image sensors and micro-bolometer arrays have achieved for visible and longwave infrared imaging respectively.

Namely, to leverage the scale and cost structure of the silicon integrated circuit industry, moving SWIR imaging from a specialized niche into broad commercial markets.

[Download CQD Whitepaper](https://www.swirvisionsystems.com/colloidal-quantum-dot-photodetectors-whitepaper/)

[Acuros Cameras](https://www.swirvisionsystems.com/products/)

## SWIR SENSOR

Today the SWIR imaging market is dominated by InGaAS sensors whose fabrication method imposes limitations on pixel size, pixel spacing and sensor resolution. With the introduction of SWIR’s Acuros CQD Sensor, production is more affordable and easier to scale, without sacrificing performance.

- 1. Encapsulant
- 2. Transparent Electrode
- 3. Other Thin Film Layers
- 4. Quantum Dots
- 5. Metal Pixel Electrode
- 6. CMOS-based read-out integrated circuit (ROIC)

## THE CQD PROCESS:

The process requires no hybridization, no epitaxial growth or exotic substrate materials, scaling easily to high volume production. The approach employs low-cost, solution-processed, colloidal quantum dots to form small pitch p-n photodiode arrays sensitive in both the SWIR and visible spectral bands.

## COMPARE SENSOR TECHNOLOGIES

Today the SWIR imaging market is dominated by InGaAS sensors whose fabrication method imposes limitations on pixel size, pixel spacing and sensor resolution. With the introduction of Acuros CQD SWIR Sensor, production is more affordable and easier to scale, without sacrificing performance.

### InGaAs SWIR

- Lower resolution
- Not volume scalable
- Not cost scalable
- Difficult to export

### Acuros CQD SWIR

- Higher resolution
- Scalable to high volume
- Scalable to very low cost
- EAR99 for global export

## SWIR CQD Sensor Vs Indium Gallium Arsenide (InGaAs) Sensor

The current SWIR imaging market is dominated by indium gallium arsenide (InGaAs) sensors, a compound semiconductor grown epitaxially on lattice-matched indium phosphide (InP) substrates.

The fabrication method imposes limitations on pixel size, pixel spacing, and sensor resolution; commercially practical InGaAs SWIR cameras are limited to VGA resolution, and even these are considered too costly for most machine vision applications.