Steady-state photocarrier collection in silicon imaging devices
Abstract
It is pointed out that solid-state imagers are based upon rectangular arrays of light-sensitive imaging sites which are also called picture elements or pixels. An absorbed photon with sufficient energy creates an electron-hole pair. When photocarriers which are generated under one imaging site diffuse to a nearby site, the imagers lose resolution. The present investigation is concerned with modeling the lateral diffusion of photocarriers or cross talk so that reliable estimates of the extent of image degradation are possible. An outline is provided of several numerical procedures which have been found useful, and the dependence of lateral diffusion on the size of the picture element is shown. Attention is also given to experimental results, and a comparison of these results with predictions for several imagers.
- Publication:
-
IEEE Transactions on Electron Devices
- Pub Date:
- September 1983
- DOI:
- 10.1109/T-ED.1983.21268
- Bibcode:
- 1983ITED...30.1123L
- Keywords:
-
- Carrier Transport (Solid State);
- Computerized Simulation;
- Electro-Optics;
- Imaging Techniques;
- Photoelectrons;
- Semiconductor Devices;
- Silicon Radiation Detectors;
- Absorptivity;
- Finite Difference Theory;
- Helmholtz Equations;
- Point Spread Functions;
- Electronics and Electrical Engineering