Claims
- 1. An interdigitated photo-EMF sensor comprising:
a substrate; a plurality of sensing regions in said substrate, each sensing region including (i) a pair of electrodes disposed adjacent said substrate and (ii) an active region in said substrate disposed adjacent said pair of electrodes; and a plurality of inactive regions in said substrate arranged between adjacent sensing regions, wherein the inactive regions and said sensing regions are dosed with a desensitizing agent, the inactive regions receiving a relatively higher dose of said desensitizing agent to thereby cause a relative higher level of defects to occur therein and said sensing regions receiving a relatively lower dose of a desensitizing agent to thereby cause a relative lower level of defects to occur therein.
- 2. The interdigitated photo-EMF sensor of claim 1 wherein the desensitizing agent is a dosage of protons.
- 3. The interdigitated photo-EMF sensor of claim 2 wherein the dose of protons in the inactive regions is 1013 per cm2 or greater while the dose of protons in the sensing regions is 1012 per cm2 or less.
- 4. The interdigitated photo-EMF sensor of claim 3 wherein the dose of protons in the sensing regions is 1010 to 1012 per cm2.
- 5. The interdigitated photo-EMF sensor of claim 4 wherein said substrate includes an asymmetric Fabry-Perot structure to reflect incident photons passing through the sensing regions back into said sensing regions.
- 6. The interdigitated photo-EMF sensor of claim 1 wherein the substrate has a surface for supporting said electrodes and further including a transparent capping layer over said surface for passivating the surface and for minimizing optical reflections from the surface.
- 7. The interdigitated photo-EMF sensor of claim 1 wherein the substrate is selected from the group consisting of (i) semiconductors such as GaAs, AlGaAs, InP, CdTe, Si, and the like, (ii) ferro-electric oxides and (iii) polymers.
- 8. The interdigitated photo-EMF sensor of claim 1 wherein the pair of electrodes of a sensing region are spaced from one another by a distance which is much less than the diffusion length of said active regions.
- 9. The interdigitated photo-EMF sensor of claim 8 wherein the substrate includes at least a layer of GaAs and the distance by which a pair of electrodes of a sensing region are spaced from one another is approximately 20 micrometers.
- 10. The interdigitated photo-EMF sensor of claim 1 wherein the desensitizing agent for both the active regions and the inactive regions is implanted protons.
- 11. A photo-EMF sensor comprising:
a substrate; and at least one sensing region in said substrate, said at least one sensing region including (i) a pair of electrodes disposed in, on or above said substrate and (ii) an active region in said substrate disposed adjacent said pair of electrodes, the pair of electrodes of said at least one sensing region being spaced from one another by a distance which is less than the diffusion length of said active region.
- 12. The photo-EMF sensor as claimed in claim 11 wherein said substrate supports a plurality of interdigitated ones of said at least one sensing region and further including a plurality of inactive regions in said substrate arranged between adjacent sensing regions.
- 13. The photo-EMF sensor of claim 12 wherein the inactive regions and said sensing regions are dosed with a desensitizing agent, the isolating regions receiving a relatively higher dose of a desensitizing agent and said sensing regions receiving a relatively lower dose of a desensitizing agent.
- 14. The photo-EMF sensor of claim 13 wherein the desensitizing agent for both the active and the inactive regions is a dosage of protons.
- 15. The photo-EMF sensor of claim 14 wherein the dose of protons in the inactive regions is 1013 or greater while the dose of protons in the sensing regions is 1012 per cm2 or less.
- 16. The photo-EMF sensor of claim 15 wherein the dose of protons in the sensing regions is 1010 to 1012 per cm2.
- 17. The photo-EMF sensor of claim 11 wherein said substrate includes an asymmetric Fabry-Perot structure to reflect incident photons passing through the sensing regions back into said sensing regions.
- 18. The photo-EMF sensor of claim 11 wherein the substrate has a surface for supporting said electrodes and further including a transparent capping layer over said surface for passivating the surface and for minimizing optical reflections from the surface.
- 19. The photo-EMF sensor of claim 11 wherein the active regions of the substrate are selected from the group consisting of GaAs, AlGaAs, InP, CdTe, Si, other semiconductor material, ferro-electric oxides and polymers.
- 20. The photo-EMF sensor of claim 11 wherein the substrate include at least a layer of GaAs upon which said electrodes are disposed and wherein the distance by which a pair of electrodes of a sensing region are spaced from one another is approximately 20 μm.
- 21. The photo-EMF sensor of claim 11 wherein the pair of electrodes of said at least one sensing region being spaced from one another by a distance which is less than one-half the diffusion length of said active region.
- 22. A method of making a photo-EMF sensor comprising:
(a) providing a substrate having a major surface; (b) implanting a relatively lower dose of a desensitizing agent into regions of said substrate defining at least a portion of one or more sensing regions thereof; (c) masking said sensing regions with a mask; (d) implanting a relatively higher dose of a desensitizing agent into at least regions of said substrate defining at least a portion of one or more inactive regions thereof; and (e) removing the mask.
- 23. The method of making a photo-EMF sensor of claim 22 wherein the desensitizing agents are protons.
- 24. The method of making a photo-EMF sensor of claim 22 wherein the desensitizing agents induce defects in said regions.
- 25. The method of making a photo-EMF sensor of claim 24 wherein the dose of protons in the inactive regions is 1013 per cm2 or greater while the dose of protons in the sensing regions is 1012 per cm2 or less.
- 26. The method of making a photo-EMF sensor of claim 25 wherein the dose of protons in the sensing regions is 1010 to 1012 per cm2.
- 27. The method of making a photo-EMF sensor of claim 22 further including forming at least one pair of electrodes on or adjacent said major surface, each of said one or more sensing regions including (i) a pair of said electrodes and (ii) an active region in said substrate disposed adjacent said pair of electrodes, the pair of electrodes of said one or more one sensing regions being spaced from one another by a distance which is much less than the diffusion length of said active region.
- 28. The method of making a photo-EMF sensor of claim 22 wherein said substrate includes at least a layer of a material selected from the group consisting of a semiconducting material, a ferro-electric oxide and a polymer.
- 29. A method of making a photo-EMF sensor comprising:
(a) providing a substrate having major surface thereof; (b) causing lattice damage in regions of said substrate defining at least a portion of one or more sensing regions thereof, and (c) causing lattice damage in regions of said substrate defining at least a portion of one or more isolating regions thereof, the amount of lattice damage occurring in said one or more isolating regions being significantly greater than the amount of lattice damage occurring in said one or more sensing regions.
- 30. The method of making a photo-EMF sensor of claim 29 wherein protons are utilized to cause the lattice damage in said sensing and isolating regions.
- 31. The method of making a photo-EMF sensor of claim 30 wherein a dose of protons is bombarded into the isolating regions at a level of 1013 per cm2 or greater while a dose of protons is bombarded into the sensing regions at a level of 1012 per cm2 or less.
- 32. The method of making a photo-EMF sensor of claim 30 wherein the dose of protons in the sensing regions is 1010 to 1012 per cm2.
- 33. The method of making a photo-EMF sensor of claim 29 further including forming at least one pair of electrodes on or adjacent said major surface, each of said one or more sensing regions including (i) a pair of said electrodes and (ii) an active region in said substrate disposed adjacent said pair of electrodes, the pair of electrodes of said one or more one sensing regions being spaced from one another by a distance which is much less than the diffusion length of said active region.
- 34. The method of making a photo-EMF sensor of claim 29 wherein said substrate includes at least a layer of a material selected from the group consisting of a semiconducting material, a ferro-electric oxide and a polymer.
- 35. The method of making a photo-EMF sensor of claim 29 wherein the step of causing lattice damage in regions of said substrate defining at least a portion of one or more sensing regions thereof globally effects said substrate.
- 36. The method of making a photo-EMF sensor of claim 34 wherein the step of causing lattice damage in regions of said substrate defining at least a portion of one or more sensing regions thereof is performed by a low temperature anneal process.
- 37. The method of making a photo-EMF sensor of claim 36 wherein the step of causing lattice damage in regions of said substrate defining at least a portion of one or more isolating regions thereof is performed by an ion implantation process.
- 38. The method of making a photo-EMF sensor of claim 29 wherein the amount of lattice damage occurring in said one or more isolating regions is at least 10 times greater than the amount of lattice damage occurring in said one or more sensing regions.
CLAIM OF BENEFITS OF PROVISIONAL APPLICATION
[0001] Applicants claim the benefits of their co-pending U.S. Provisional application Serial No. 60/325,278, filed on Sep. 26, 2001, the contents of which are hereby expressly incorporated herein in their entirety by this reference.
Provisional Applications (1)
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Number |
Date |
Country |
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60325278 |
Sep 2001 |
US |