A method of manufacturing a pinned photodiode, including: forming a region of photon conversion into electric charges of a first conductivity type on a substrate of the second conductivity type; coating said region with a layer of a heavily-doped insulator of the second conductivity type; and annealing to ensure a dopant diffusion from the heavily-doped insulator layer.

The invention relates to a majority current assisted detector device, comprising a semiconductor layer of a first conductivity type epitaxially grown on a semiconductor substrate, at least two control regions of the first conductivity type, at least two detection regions of a second conductivity type opposite to the first conductivity type, and a source for generating a majority carrier current in the semiconductor layer between the two control regions, the majority current being associated with an electrical field. The detection regions surround the control regions, thereby forming at least two taps. The device is configured for backside illumination and further comprises a well of the first conductivity type between the two detection regions for insulating the detection regions. The well comprises pixel circuitry elements.

Methods and systems include constructing and operating a semiconductor device with a mid-band dopant layer. In various implementations, carriers that are optically excited in a mid-band dopant region may provide injection currents that may reduce transition times and increase achievable operating frequency in a bipolar junction transistor (BJT). In various implementations, carriers that are optically excited in a mid-band dopant region within a thyristor may improve closure transition time, effective current spreading velocity, and maximum rate of current rise.

The present invention discloses a photo-detector comprising: an n-type photon absorbing layer of a first energy bandgap; a middle barrier layer, an intermediate layer is a semiconductor structure; and a contact layer of a third energy bandgap, wherein the layer materials are selected such that the first energy bandgap of the photon absorbing layer is narrower than that of said middle barrier layer; wherein the material composition and thickness of said intermediate layer are selected such that the valence band of the intermediate layer lies above the valence band in the barrier layer to create an efficient trapping and transfer of minority carriers from the barrier layer to the contact layer such that a tunnel current through the barrier layer from the contact layer to the photon absorbing layer is less than a dark current in the photo-detector and the dark current from the photon-absorbing layer to said middle barrier layer is essentially diffusion limited and is due to the unimpeded flow of minority carriers, thus reducing generation-recombination (GR) noise of the photo-detector. The principles of the present invention also apply to inverted polarity structures of the form pBp in which all the doping polarities and band alignments described above are reversed.

A two-terminal detector has a back-to-back p/n/p SWIR/MWIR stack structure, which includes P-SWIR absorber, N-SWIR, wide bandgap bather, N-MWIR absorber, and P-MWIR layers, with contacts on the P-MWIR and P-SWIR layers. The junction between the SWIR layers and the junction between the MWIR layers are preferably passivated. The detector stack is preferably arranged such that a negative bias applied to the top of the stack reverse-biases the MWIR junction and forward-biases the SWIR junction, such that the detector collects photocurrent from MWIR radiation. A positive bias forward-biases the MWIR junction and reverse-biases the SWIR junction, such that photocurrent from SWIR radiation is collected. A larger positive bias induces electron avalanche at the SWIR junction, thereby providing detector sensitivity sufficient to provide low light level passive amplified imaging. Detector sensitivity in this mode is preferably sufficient to provide high resolution 3-D eye-safe LADAR imaging.

A photodiode structure is based on the use of a double junction sensitive to different wavelength bands based on a magnitude of a reverse bias applied to the photodiode. The monolithic integration of a sensor with double functionality in a single chip allows realization of a low cost ultra-compact sensing element in a single packaging useful in many applications which require simultaneous or spatially synchronized detection of optical photons in different spectral regions.

A ballistic carrier spectral sensor includes a photon absorption region to generate photo-generated carriers from incident light; a first potential barrier region adjacent the photon absorption region and having an adjustable height defining a minimum energy of the photo-generated carriers required to pass therethrough; a second potential barrier region having an adjustable height defining a minimum energy of the photo-generated carriers required to pass therethrough; a spillage well region disposed between the first potential barrier region and the second potential barrier region and configured to collect photo-generated carriers having an energy lower than that required to pass through the second potential barrier region; and a collection region adjacent the second potential barrier region and configured to collect carriers that cross the second potential barrier region. A total thickness of the first potential barrier region and the spillage well region is less than a mean free path of the photo-generated carriers.

An imager having a pixel cell having an associated strained silicon layer. The strained silicon layer increases charge transfer efficiency, decreases image lag, and improves blue response in imaging devices.

The present invention discloses a photo-detector comprising: an n-type photon absorbing layer of a first energy bandgap; a middle barrier layer, an intermediate layer is a semiconductor structure; and a contact layer of a third energy bandgap, wherein the layer materials are selected such that the first energy bandgap of the photon absorbing layer is narrower than that of said middle barrier layer; wherein the material composition and thickness of said intermediate layer are selected such that the valence band of the intermediate layer lies above the valence band in the barrier layer to create an efficient trapping and transfer of minority carriers from the barrier layer to the contact layer such that a tunnel current through the barrier layer from the contact layer to the photon absorbing layer is less than a dark current in the photo-detector and the dark current from the photon-absorbing layer to said middle barrier layer is essentially diffusion limited and is due to the unimpeded flow of minority carriers, thus reducing generation-recombination (GR) noise of the photo-detector. The principles of the present invention also apply to inverted polarity structures of the form pBp in which all the doping polarities and band alignments described above are reversed.

The present invention is directed to a position sensing detector made of a photodiode having a semi insulating substrate layer; a buffered layer that is formed directly atop the semi-insulating substrate layer, an absorption layer that is formed directly atop the buffered layer substrate layer, a cap layer that is formed directly atop the absorption layer, a plurality of cathode electrodes electrically coupled to the buffered layer or directly to the cap layer, and at least one anode electrode electrically coupled to a p-type region in the cap layer. The position sensing detector has a photo-response non-uniformity of less than 2% and a position detection error of less than 10 m across the active area.