Mercury cadmium telluride avalanche photodiode focal plane array

NASA/GSFC has a requirement for a 4x4 HgCdTe e-APD FPA system, including a closed-cycle cooler and peripheral electronics, for their methane lidar development in the labs and airborne campaigns.

NASA/GSFC intends to purchase the items from DRS Reconnaissance, Surveillance and Target Acquisition (DRSTA) pursuant to 10 U.S.C. 2304(c)(1), Only One Responsible Source.

After conducting an in-house survey and numerous purchases and tests of a wide range of avalanche photodiode detectors from several vendors, we found that DRS is the only supplier that has demonstrated the required detector performance for our methane lidar for the potential mission on board the International Space Station.

DRS has successfully delivered the first system which is now used in our airborne CO2 lidar with satisfactory performance. DRS has also successfully delivered a duplicated system and conducted two proton radiation tests to this type of HgCdTe e-APDs.

The HgCdTe APD arrays produced by DRS are a proprietary design with a lateral cylindrical geometry with the p-n junction and n- multiplication region around the central via interconnect, which has unique advantages of high gain, low dark current, and high fill factor. DRS has been producing this type of HgCdTe APDs since 2006 and has published many technical articles about the devices in scientific journals and conference proceedings.

The Government does not intend to acquire a commercial item using FAR Part 12.

Interested organizations may submit their capabilities and qualifications to perform the effort in writing to the identified point of contact not later than 4:30 p.m. local time on 10/16/2014. Such capabilities/qualifications will be evaluated solely for the purpose of determining whether or not to conduct this procurement on a competitive basis. A determination by the Government not to compete this proposed effort on a full and open competition basis, based upon responses to this notice, is solely within the discretion of the government.

Oral communications are not acceptable in response to this notice.

All responsible sources may submit an offer which shall be considered by the agency.

NASA Clause 1852.215-84, Ombudsman, is applicable. The Center Ombudsman for this acquisition can be found at http://prod.nais.nasa.gov/pub/p ub_library/Omb.html .