Conception of the optical sensors based on transient processes in MIS structures

摘要

New silicon-based optical sensors with metal-insulator-semiconductor structure (MIS) have been developed in this work. The physical properties of these sensors are described with a simple MIS capacitor model. Two-level voltage bias provides a transient between two quasi-equilibrium inversion modes. This transient is applied for storage and readout of the input optical signal for a quantitative measurement of a weak radiation. Proposed simple readout procedure provides reading the integrated information with a significant amplification. The amplification (or the current transformation coefficient) is determined by the ratio of integration and readout times and in this investigation the amplification exceeds the value of 10(3). A simple theoretical model is applied to describe the sensor properties at illumination. Numerical calculation under the experimental conditions confirms a validity of the physical model and arguments used at the discussion of the experimental results. (C) 2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. [References: 7]