Indium antimonide (InSb) is a narrow gap semiconductor material from the group the (III-V group) used in infrared detectors, including thermal imaging cameras, FLIR systems, infrared homing missile guidance systems, and in infrared astronomy. The indium antimonide detectors are sensitive between 1-5 µm wavelengths. General Name, Symbol, Number indium, In, 49 Chemical series poor metals Group, Period, Block 13, 5, p Appearance silvery lustrous gray Atomic mass 114. ... General Name, Symbol, Number antimony, Sb, 51 Chemical series metalloids Group, Period, Block 15, 5, p Appearance silvery lustrous grey Atomic mass 121. ... In solid state physics and related applied fields, the band gap is the energy difference between the top of the valence band and the bottom of the conduction band in insulators and semiconductors. ... Semiconductor materials are insulators at absolute zero temperature that conduct electricity in a limited way at room temperature (see also Semiconductor). ... The Boron group is periodic table group 13 (IUPAC style) in the periodic table. ... The group 15 elements(a. ... Detectors that react to infrared (IR) radiation. ... Thermography can refer to a printing process and a imaging process. ... A forward looking infrared (FLIR) system is a television camera that takes pictures in infrared. ... Infra-red homing refers to a guidance system which uses the infra-red light emissions of a target to track it. ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with Guided missile. ... Infrared astronomy is the branch of astronomy and astrophysics which deals with objects visible in infrared (IR) radiation. ...

Indium antimonide was a very common detector in the old, single-detector mechanically scanned thermal imaging systems.

Indium antimonide is a crystalline compound made from the elements indium and antimony. It has the appearance of dark grey silvery metal pieces or powder with vitreous lustre. When subjected to temperatures over 500 °C, it melts and decomposes, liberating antimony and antimony oxide vapors. Its CAS number is 1312-41-0[1]. Its safety and risk phrases are R20 R22 S2 S20/21 S22 S45. A compound is an area of land that is surrounded by fences, walls, or barbed wire and is used for a particular purpose, especially an area containing buildings and where the entry and exit of people is controlled. ... A chemical element, often called simply element, is the class of atoms which contain the same number of protons. ... General Name, Symbol, Number indium, In, 49 Chemical series poor metals Group, Period, Block 13, 5, p Appearance silvery lustrous gray Atomic mass 114. ... General Name, Symbol, Number antimony, Sb, 51 Chemical series metalloids Group, Period, Block 15, 5, p Appearance silvery lustrous grey Atomic mass 121. ... CAS registry numbers are unique numerical identifiers for chemical compounds, polymers, biological sequences and alloys. ...

Indium antimonide photodiode detectors are photovoltaic, generating electric current when subjected to infrared radiation. InSb has high quantum efficiency (80-90%). Its drawback is a high instability over time; the detector characteristics tend to drift over time, and between cooldowns, requiring periodical recalibrations, increasing the complexity of the imaging system. Due to their instability, InSb detectors are rarely used in measurement applications. This added complexity has its worth where extreme sensitivity is required, though, eg. in long-range military thermal imaging systems. [2] InSb detectors also require cooling, as they have to operate in low temperatures. However, large arrays (up to 1024x1024 pixels) are available. [3] A photodiode A photodiode is an electronic component and a type of photodetector. ... A solar cell, a form of photovoltaic cell, is a device that uses the photoelectric effect to generate electricity from light, thus generating solar power (energy). ... A graph showing variation of quantum efficiency with wavelength of the CCD chips in the Hubble Space Telescopes Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2. ... A pixel (pix, 1932 abbreviation of pictures, coined by Variety headline writers + element) is one of the many tiny dots that make up the representation of a picture in a computers memory. ...

HgCdTe and PtSi are materials with similar use. HgCdTe or Mercury cadmium telluride is an alloy of CdTe and HgTe and is sometimes claimed to be the third semiconductor of technological importance after Si and GaAs. ... Platinum silicide (PtSi) is a semiconductor material used in infrared detectors. ...

Layer of indium antimonide sandwiched between layers of aluminium indium antimonide can act as a quantum well. This approach is studied in order to construct very fast transistors. [4],[5] Bipolar transistors operating at frequencies up to 85 GHz were constructed from indium antimonide in the late 1990s. Field effect transistors operating at over 200 GHz have been reported more recently (Intel/QinetiQ). Some models suggest terahertz frequencies are achievable with this material. Indium antimonide semiconductors are also capable of operating with voltages under 0.5 V, reducing their power requirements. [6] A quantum well is a potential well that confines particles in one dimension, forcing them to occupy a planar region. ... Assorted transistors Transistor was also a common name for a 1960s era handheld transistor radio. ... The schematic symbols for pnp_ and npn_type BJTs. ... The field-effect transistor (FET) is a transistor that relies on an electric field to control the shape of the nonconductive depletion layer within a semiconductor material, thus controlling the conductivity of a channel in that material. ... Intel Corporation (NASDAQ: INTC) (HKSE: 4335) (founded 1968) is a U.S.-based multinational corporation that is best known for designing and manufacturing microprocessors and specialized integrated circuits. ... QinetiQ (pronounced kə-nĕtĭk, as in kinetic energy) is a British defence technology company, created out of the greater part of the government agency DERA when it was split up in June 2001 (with the smaller part forming dstl). ... A terahertz (THz) is 1012 hertz or a thousand gigahertz, a measure of frequency. ...

History

InSb crystals have been grown from a liquid melt since the 1950s. // Events and trends The 1950s in Western society was marked with a sharp rise in the economy for the first time in almost 30 years and return to the 1920s-type consumer society built on credit and boom-times, as well as the the baby boom from returning GIs who...

Physics

It is a narrow gap semiconductor with an energy band gap equal to 0.17 eV at 300 K and 0.23 eV at 80 K. The crystal structure is cubic with a 0.648 nm lattice constant. A semiconductor is a material with an electrical conductivity that is intermediate between that of an insulator and a conductor. ... In solid state physics and related applied fields, the band gap is the energy difference between the top of the valence band and the bottom of the conduction band in insulators and semiconductors. ... eV may stand for: electronvolt eingetragener Verein, i. ... The kelvin (symbol: K) is the SI unit of temperature, and is one of the seven SI base units. ... Rose des Sables (Sand Rose), formed of gypsum crystals In mineralogy and crystallography, a crystal structure is a unique arrangement of atoms in a crystal. ... The metre (or meter) (symbol: m) is the SI base unit of length. ... Lattice constant, or a, defines the distance between atoms in crystal lattice. ...

Alloys which have been studied include: AlInSb, InGaSb, and InAsSb. An alloy is a combination, either in solution or compound, of two or more elements, which has a combination of at least one metal, and where the resultant material has metallic properties. ...

The undoped semiconductor possesses the largest ambient temperature electron mobility, electron velocity, and ballistic length of any known semiconductor (7.8 m²V^-1s^-1), except possibly for carbon nanotubes. Mobility is the ability and willingness to move or change; this can depend on motor skills, special tools such as a walking stick, walker or wheelchair, vehicles, uncongested roads, public transport; mobility with regard to ones home depends on availability of houses and being bound to an area because... An electronic device known as a diode can be formed by joining two nanoscale carbon tubes with different electronic properties. ...

Growth Methods

InSb can be grown by solidifying a melt from the liquid state, or epitaxially by liquid phase epitaxy, hot wall epitaxy or molecular beam epitaxy. It can also be grown from organometallic compounds by MOVPE. A liquid will assume the shape of its container. ... Epitaxy is the growth of crystals of one material on the crystal face of another (heteroepitaxy) or the same (homoepitaxy) material, such that the two materials have a defined relative structural orientation. ... Molecular beam epitaxy, abbreviated MBE, is the deposition of one or more pure materials onto a single crystal wafer, one layer of atoms at a time, under ultra-high vacuum, forming a perfect crystal. ... Organometallic have classically been compounds having bonds between one or more metal atoms and one or more carbon atoms of an organyl group. ... Metalorganic vapour phase epitaxy (MOVPE) is a chemical vapour deposition method of epitaxial growth of materials, especially semiconductors from the pyrolysis of organic compounds containing the required chemical elements. ...

Device Applications

• thermal imager detectors using photodiodes or photoelectromagnetic detectors
• magnetic sensors using magnetoresistance or the Hall effect
• fast transistors

Thermography can refer to a printing process and a imaging process. ... A photodiode A photodiode is an electronic component and a type of photodetector. ... Magnetoresistance is the property of some materials to lose or gain electrical resistance when an external magnetic field is applied to them. ... Hall effect diagram, showing electron flow (rather than conventional current). ... Assorted transistors Transistor was also a common name for a 1960s era handheld transistor radio. ...

External Links

• Ioffe Institute semiconductor properties. [7]
• National Compound Semiconductor Roadmap [8] at the Office of Naval Research