1040*1040 element PtSi Schottky-barrier IR image sensor

Abstract

A high-density infrared image sensor has been developed for thermal imaging in the 3-5 mu m infrared band. The array size is 1040*1040. The detector is a platinum silicide (PtSi) Schottky-barrier diode. The charge sweep device (CSD) architecture is used for the device in order to realize a large fill factor and a high saturation level. The device is fabricated with a 1.5 mu m minimum feature size and has a large fill factor of 53% in spite of the small pixel size (17*17 mu m/sup 2/). The saturation level is improved by increasing the detector storage capacity. A high saturation level of 1.6*10/sup 6/ electrons is obtained. The noise equivalent temperature difference with f/1.2 optics is estimated as 0.10 K at 300 K.<>