In this letter, we describe the characteristics of molecular beam epitaxy GaAs/AlGaAs quantum-well infrared photodetectors (QWIP's) grown on a GaAs substrate, and on a GaAs-on-Si substrate produced by metalorganic chemical-vapor deposition. Important issues for QWIP applications such as dark current, spectral response, and absolute responsivity are studied. We find that compared to a similar detector structure grown on a GaAs substrate, the detector grown on a GaAs-on-Si substrate exhibits similar dark current and absolute responsivity while displaying a small blueshift in the spectral response. © 1997 American Institute of Physics.