Patent classifications
H01L27/14652
Infrared detector having a directly bonded silicon substrate present on top thereof
A direct bonding method for infrared focal plane arrays, includes steps of depositing a thin adhesion layer on infrared radiation detecting material, removing a portion of the thin adhesion layer with a chemical-mechanical polishing process, forming a bonding layer at a bonding interface, and bonding the infrared radiation detecting material to a silicon wafer with the thin adhesion layer as a bonding layer. The thin adhesion layer may include SiO.sub.x, where x ranges between 1.0 and 2.0. The thickness of the thin adhesion layer to form the bonding layer is 500 angstrom or less.
Photodetector
A photodetector device comprising n-type and p-type light absorbing regions arranged to form a pn-junction and n+ and p+ contact regions connected to respective contacts. The light absorbing regions and the contact regions are arranged in a sequence n+ p n p+ so that, after a voltage applied between the n+ and p+ contacts is switched from a reverse bias to a forward bias, electrons and holes which are generated in the light absorbing regions in response to photon absorption drift towards the p+ and n+ contact regions respectively, which causes current to start to flow between the contacts after a time delay which is inversely proportional to the incident light intensity.
Image sensors and electronic devices
An image sensor may include a first photo-sensing device on a semiconductor substrate and configured to sense light of a first wavelength spectrum, and second and third photo-sensing devices integrated in the semiconductor substrate and configured to sense light of a second and third wavelength spectrum, respectively. The first photo-sensing device may overlap each of the second and third photo-sensing devices in a thickness direction of the semiconductor substrate. The second and third photo-sensing devices do not overlap in the thickness direction and each have an upper surface, a lower surface, and a doped region therebetween. The third photo-sensing device includes an upper surface deeper further from the upper surface of the semiconductor substrate than the upper surface of the second photo-sensing device and a doped region thicker than the doped region of the second photo-sensing device. The image sensor may omit the first photo-sensing device.
Light conversion device
A light conversion device includes a light-emitting unit, a photoelectric conversion unit, and an electroconductive bonding layer. Each of the light-emitting unit and the photoelectric conversion unit includes a first-type region and a second-type region opposite to the first-type region. The electroconductive bonding layer is disposed between the light-emitting unit and the photoelectric conversion unit for connecting the photoelectric conversion unit with the light-emitting unit. When the light conversion device is operated to receive a bias and an external light, the light-emitting unit generates a modulated light having a frequency different from that of the external light.
MULTI-PHOTODIODE PIXEL CELL
Methods and systems for image sensing are provided. In one example, an apparatus comprises a semiconductor substrate comprising a light incident surface to receive light, a first pinned photodiode, and a second pinned photodiode, the first pinned photodiode and the second pinned photodiode forming a stack structure in the semiconductor substrate along an axis perpendicular to the light incident surface, the stack structure enabling the first pinned photodiode and the second pinned photodiode to, respectively, convert a first component of the light and a second component of the light to first charge and second charge. The apparatus further comprises one or more capacitors formed in the semiconductor substrate and configured to generate a first voltage and a second voltage based on, respectively, the first charge and the second charge.
Tunable infrared pixels having unpatterned graphene layer and conductive metasurface
A monolithically integrated, tunable infrared pixel comprises a combined broadband detector and graphene-enabled tunable metasurface filter that operate as a single solid-state device with no moving parts. Functionally, tunability results from the plasmonic properties of graphene that are acutely dependent upon the carrier concentration within the infrared. Voltage induced changes in graphene's carrier concentration can be leveraged to change the metasurface filter's transmission thereby altering the “colors” of light reaching the broadband detector and hence its spectral responsivity. The invention enables spectrally agile infrared detection with independent pixel-to-pixel spectral tunability.
MULTILEVEL SEMICONDUCTOR DEVICE AND STRUCTURE WITH IMAGE SENSORS AND WAFER BONDING
An integrated device, the device including: a first level including a first mono-crystal layer, the first mono-crystal layer including a plurality of single crystal transistors; an overlaying oxide on top of the first level; a second level including a second mono-crystal layer, the second level overlaying the oxide, where the second mono-crystal layer includes a plurality of semiconductor devices; a third level overlaying the second level, where the third level includes a plurality of image sensors, where the second level is bonded to the first level, where the bonded includes an oxide to oxide bond; and an isolation layer disposed between the second mono-crystal layer and the third level.
Barrier Infrared Detector Architecture for Focal Plane Arrays
Disclosed herein is an infrared detector. The detector includes a plurality of pixels. Each pixel includes an n-type semiconductor top contact layer, a p-type semiconductor layer electrically connected to the n-type top contact layer to form a top p-n junction, a unipolar electron barrier electrically connected to the p-type semiconductor layer, a bottom absorber, and an n-type semiconductor bottom contact layer electrically connected to the bottom absorber. The unipolar electron barrier is positioned between the p-type semiconductor layer and the bottom absorber.
Multilevel semiconductor device and structure with image sensors and wafer bonding
An integrated device, the device including: a first level including a first mono-crystal layer, the first mono-crystal layer including a plurality of single crystal transistors; an overlying oxide disposed on top of the first level; a second level including a second mono-crystal layer, the second level overlaying the oxide, where the second mono-crystal layer includes a plurality of semiconductor devices; a third level overlaying the second level, where the third level includes a plurality of image sensors, where the first level includes a plurality of landing pads, where the second level is bonded to the first level, where the bonded includes an oxide to oxide bond; and an isolation layer disposed between the second mono-crystal layer and the third level.
DIGITAL CAMERAS WITH DIRECT LUMINANCE AND CHROMINANCE DETECTION
An image capture device includes a plurality of independently formed camera channels. Each of the plurality of independently formed camera channels includes a respective lens that receives incident light and transmits the incident light to a respective sensor without transmitting the incident light to respective sensor of other camera channels within the plurality of independently formed camera channels. Further, a processor that is communicatively coupled to the respective sensor of each of the plurality of independently formed camera channels. The processor is configured to control an integration time of the respective sensor of each of the plurality of independently formed camera channels individually with the receive respective images from the respective sensor of each of the plurality of independently formed camera channels, and form a combined image by combing each of the respective images.