In a recent communication from the David Sarnoff Research Center, Princeton, New Jersey, the background to the continuing development of platinum silicide infrared imaging devices is discussed (J. R. Tower, Infrared Technol., 1991, 25, (2), 103-106).

When the concept of Schottky-barrier infrared focal plane arrays was first put forward by researchers at the Rome Air Development Center, in 1973, it was proposed that detectors formed by the reaction of platinum, or palladium, with p -type silicon would be sensitive in the 1 to 5 µ m band. Before the end of the decade the Sarnoff Laboratory had demonstrated a 25 × 50 platinum silicide imager operating in the 3 to 5 µ m band, and five years later they had developed a 160 ×244 array with a noise equivalent temperature difference of 0.1 K. Now they are developing cameras around three focal plane arrays, namely 64 × 128 and 320 × 244 infrared charge-coupled devices and a 640 × 480 complementary metal-oxide silicon infrared imager. Applications include thermography, radiometry, industrial process control and scientific imaging.

In the future it is planned to produce iridium silicide complementary metal-oxide silicon infrared imagers with wavelength capability from 1 to 10 µ m or 0.2 to 10 µ m with back- or front-side illumination, respectively.