Research Trio Demonstrates AlGaN Camera That Images in UV, Digitally

North Carolina State University in Raleigh, Night Vision Laboratory at Fort Belvoir, Va., and the Honeywell Technology Center of Minneapolis have completed a demonstration of a semiconductor-based, digital ultraviolet camera. The device employs a 1024-sensor array of AlGaN photodiodes sensitive to wavelengths of 320 to 365 nm. Large-format devices will have applications in astronomy, environmental sensing, and military detection of biological agents and missile- and shellfire.

Jan F. Schetzina, a professor at the university's solid-state physics laboratory and director of the project, published the team's results online with the Materials Research Society's Internet Journal of Nitride Semiconductor Research.