The authors demonstrate the design, growth, fabrication, and characterization of resonant cavity enhanced InAs/In0.15Ga0.85As dots-in-a-well (RC-DWELL) quantum dot infrared photodetector (QDIP) and compare it with a standard DWELL detector. They measured peak photoresponse at the resonant wavelength of 9.5 mu m for the RC-DWELL photodetector. The peak responsivity was measured to be 0.76 A/W at 1.4 V and the peak detectivity was 1.4 X 1010 cm Hz(1/2)/W at 0.5 V at a temperature of 77 K. The photocurrent density increased in comparison with the standard DWELL structure with the same active region by a factor of 6 at V-b=2.1 V and 80 K. A factor of 6 increase in responsivity and factor of 3 increase in detectivity at 1.2 V and 77 K were also observed in the resonant cavity enhanced DWELL sample. The quantum efficiencies for the RC-DWELL sample were calculated to be similar to 10% at 9.5 mu m and 1.25% at 10 Am for the standard DWELL sample. They conclude that the RC-DWELL is a promising improvement for QDIP-based infrared detection applications. C 2007 American Vacuum Society.