CMOS-Compatible Room-Temperature Rectifier Toward Terahertz Radiation Detection

In this paper, we present a new rectifying device, compatible with the technology of CMOS image sensors, suitable for implementing a direct-conversion detector operating at room temperature for operation at up to terahertz frequencies. The rectifying device can be obtained by introducing some simple modifications of the charge-storage well in conventional CMOS integrated circuits, making the proposed solution easy to integrate with the existing imaging systems. The rectifying device is combined with the different elements of the detector, composed of a 3D high-performance antenna and a charge-storage well. In particular, its position just below the edge of the 3D antenna takes maximum advantage of the high electric field concentrated by the antenna itself. In addition, the proposed structure ensures the integrity of the charge-storage well of the detector. In the structure, it is not necessary to use very scaled and costly technological nodes, since the CMOS transistor only provides the necessary integrated readout electronics. On-wafer measurements of RF characteristics of the designed junction are reported and discussed. The overall performances of the entire detector in terms of noise equivalent power (NEP) are evaluated by combining low-frequency measurements of the rectifier with numerical simulations of the 3D antenna and the semiconductor structure at 1 THz, allowing prediction of the achievable NEP

Porous silicon solar cells

We developed a new process for the fabrication of crystalline solar cell, based on an ultrathin silicon membrane, taking advantage of porous silicon technology. The suggested architecture allows the costs reduction of silicon based solar cell reusing the same wafer to produce a great number of membranes. The architectures combines the efficiency of crystalline silicon solar cell, with the great absorption of porous silicon, and with a more efficient way to use the material. The new process faces the main challenge to achieve an effective and not expensive passivation of the porous silicon surface, in order to achieve an efficient photovoltaic device. At the same time the process suggests a smart way to selective doping of the macroporous silicon layers despite the through-going pores. © 2015 IEEE. SciVal Topic Prominence  Topic: Porous silicon | Silicon | macroporous silicon Prominence percentile: 66.984  Author keywords nanofabricationporous siliconsilicon nanoelectronicssolar cells Indexed keywords Engineering controlled terms: Crystalline materialsNanoelectronicsNanostructured materialsNanotechnologyPorous siliconSiliconSilicon wafersSolar cells Engineering uncontrolled terms Crystalline silicon solar cellsCrystalline solar cellsMacro porous siliconPhotovoltaic devicesPorous silicon surfacesPorous silicon technologySilicon nanoelectronicsUltrathin silicon membrane Engineering main heading: Silicon solar cells ISBN: 978-146738155-0 Source Type: Conference Proceeding Original language: English DOI: 10.1109/NANO.2015.7388710 Document Type: Conference Paper Sponsors: Nanotechnology Council Publisher: Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc. References (9) View in search results format ▻ All Export  Print  E-mail Save to PDF Create bibliography 1 (2012) International Technology Roadmap for Photovoltaics Results 2012. Cited 24 times. ITRPV, Third Edition, Berlin 2012 www.ITRPV.net 2 Lehmann, V., Honlein, W., Stengl, R., Willer, J., Wendt, H. (1992) Verfahren Zur Herstellung Einer Solarzelle Aus Einer Substratscheibe. Cited 6 times. German patent DE4204455C1; Filing date: 29. 01. 3 Brendel, R., Ernst, M. Macroporous Si as an absorber for thin-film solar cells (2010) Physica Status Solidi - Rapid Research Letters, 4 (1-2), pp. 40-42. Cited 22 times. http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/cgi-bin/fulltext/123215552/PDFSTART doi: 10.1002/pssr.200903372 Locate full-text(opens in a new window) View at Publisher 4 Ernst, M., Brendel, R., Ferré, R., Harder, N.-P. Thin macroporous silicon heterojunction solar cells (2012) Physica Status Solidi - Rapid Research Letters, 6 (5), pp. 187-189. Cited 16 times. doi: 10.1002/pssr.201206113 Locate full-text(opens in a new window) View at Publisher 5 Ernst, M., Brendel, R. Macroporous silicon solar cells with an epitaxial emitter (2013) IEEE Journal of Photovoltaics, 3 (2), art. no. 6472253, pp. 723-729. Cited 7 times. doi: 10.1109/JPHOTOV.2013.2247094 Locate full-text(opens in a new window) View at Publisher 6 Ernst, M., Schulte-Huxel, H., Niepelt, R., Kajari-Schröder, S., Brendel, R. Thin crystalline macroporous silicon solar cells with ion implanted emitter (Open Access) (2013) Energy Procedia, 38, pp. 910-918. Cited 2 times. http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/18766102 doi: 10.1016/j.egypro.2013.07.364 Locate full-text(opens in a new window) View at Publisher 7 Nenzi, P., Kholostov, K., Crescenzi, R., Bondarenka, H., Bondarenko, V., Balucani, M. Electrochemically etched TSV for porous silicon interposer technologies (2013) Proceedings - Electronic Components and Technology Conference, art. no. 6575887, pp. 2201-2207. Cited 2 times. ISBN: 978-147990233-0 doi: 10.1109/ECTC.2013.6575887 Locate full-text(opens in a new window) View at Publisher 8 Perticaroli, S., Varlamava, V., Palma, F. Microwave sensing of nanostructured semiconductor surfaces (2014) Applied Physics Letters, 104 (1), art. no. 013110. Cited 3 times. doi: 10.1063/1.4861424 Locate full-text(opens in a new window) View at Publisher 9 De Cesare, G., Caputo, D., Tucci, M. Electrical properties of ITO/crystalline-silicon contact at different deposition temperatures (2012) IEEE Electron Device Letters, 33 (3), art. no. 6142006, pp. 327-329. Cited 28 times. doi: 10.1109/LED.2011.2180356 Locate full-text(opens in a new window) View at Publisher © Copyright 2017 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved. ◅ Back to results ◅ Previous 3of10 Next ▻  Top of page Metrics Learn more about article metrics in Scopus (opens in a new window)  0 Citations in Scopus 0 Learn more about Field-Weighted Citation Impact Field-Weighted Citation Impact PlumX Metrics Usage, Captures, Mentions, Social Media and Citations beyond Scopus.  Cited by 0 documents Inform me when this document is cited in Scopus: Set citation alert ▻ Set citation feed ▻ Related documents Thin crystalline macroporous silicon solar cells with ion implanted emitter Ernst, M. , Schulte-Huxel, H. , Niepelt, R. (2013) Energy Procedia Multilayer etching for kerf-free solar cells from macroporous silicon Schäfer, S. , Ernst, M. , Kajari-Schröder, S. (2013) Energy Procedia Macroporous silicon solar cells with an epitaxial emitter Ernst, M. , Brendel, R. (2013) IEEE Journal of Photovoltaics View all related documents based on references Find more related documents in Scopus based on: Authors ▻ Keywords ▻ About Scopus What is Scopus Content coverage Scopus blog Scopus API Privacy matters Language 日本語に切り替える 切换到简体中文 切換到繁體中文 Русский язык Customer Service Help Contact us Elsevier Terms and conditions ↗ Privacy policy ↗ Copyright © 2018 Elsevier B.V ↗. All rights reserved. Scopus® is a registered trademark of Elsevier B.V. We use cookies to help provide and enhance our service and tailor content. By continuing, you agree to the use of cookies. RELX Group We developed a new process for the fabrication of crystalline solar cell, based on an ultrathin silicon membrane, taking advantage of porous silicon technology. The suggested architecture allows the costs reduction of silicon based solar cell reusing the same wafer to produce a great number of membranes. The architectures combines the efficiency of crystalline silicon solar cell, with the great absorption of porous silicon, and with a more efficient way to use the material. The new process faces the main challenge to achieve an effective and not expensive passivation of the porous silicon surface, in order to achieve an efficient photovoltaic device. At the same time the process suggests a smart way to selective doping of the macroporous silicon layers despite the through-going pores

Terahertz rectifyier for integrated image detector

We present a new CMOS compatible direct conversion terahertz detector operating at room temperature. The rectenna consists in a truncated conical helix extruded from a planar spiral and connected to a nanometric metallic whisker at one of its edges. The whisker reaches the semiconductor substrate that constitutes the antenna ground plane. The rectifying device can be obtained introducing some simple modifications of the charge storage well in conventional CMOS APS devices, making the proposed solution easy to integrate with existing imaging systems. No need of scaling toward very scaled and costly technological node is required, since the CMOS only provides the necessary integrated readout electronics. On-wafer measurements of RF characteristics of the designed rectifying junction are reported and discussed

Microwave sensing of nanostructured semiconductor surfaces

In this paper, we present a method for the characterization of the lifetime of photoinduced carriers in semiconductor nanostructures based on the interaction of the photocarriers with the evanescent electric field of a microwave, propagating in a coplanar waveguide. The limited spatial extension of the evanescent field ensures that only a defined portion of material is analyzed. The nanostructures are illuminated by pulses of ultraviolet light which ensures that absorption and photogeneration occur mainly within the semiconductor nanostructure. Absorption due to photogenerated carriers produces weak variations of the power of microwaves travelling along the coplanar structure. Time variations of transmitted power through the waveguide thus follow the time variations of photogenerated charges. The technique is completely contactless, and ensures fast and non-destructive test capability. The measurement was applied for monitoring of lifetime of photogenerated carriers in macroporous silicon, proving to be strongly effective. (C) 2014 AIP Publishing LLC

Electric Field Enhancement in 3-D Tapered Helix Antenna for Terahertz Applications

A tapered helix monopole as a part of a rectenna for the detection of terahertz radiation is proposed. The antenna consists of a truncated conical helix extruded from a planar spiral and in a nanometric metallic whisker connected to one of its edges. The whisker faces a semiconductor substrate constituting the antenna ground plane. The structure is designed to be combined with a rectifying junction, realized just below the whisker base, which produces the direct conversion of terahertz electromagnetic field into dc current. The figure of merit of the structure is the electric field enhancement factor at the metallic whisker/semiconductor interface. Numerical full-wave simulations show that, for the tapered helix monopole, the field enhancement factor value can be higher than 26 000, which is approximately one order of magnitude greater than previously reported values in the literature. Detailed description of the fabrication process and investigation of antenna performances for different values of geometrical parameters are presented

Terahertz Sensor for Integrated Image Detector

AbstractTerahertz image sensors have large potential in time-domain spectroscopy, radio astronomy, security control, communications, and biomedical imaging.We present a new structure for THz imaging, obtained by the combination of a CMOS photodetector, and a rectennas composed by a tapered μ-helix monopole and a rectifying device. The antenna consists in a truncated conical helix extruded from a planar spiral and in a nanometric metallic whisker connected to one of its edges. We introduce the new structure together with an accurate study of the effect of electric field enhancement and of parasitic elements which affect the overall sensitivity of the device

On-Chip THz 3D Antennas

In this work a new class of integrated 3D antennas is presented: the u-helix antenna class. U-helix is a truncated conical helix built using a novel MEMS (micro electro mechanical systems) technology directly realized on a silicon substrate, extruded from a planar spiral. The antenna is characterized by high gain (>6 dBi) and wide fractional bandwidth (0.4) in the 100 GHz to 1 THz frequency range. Fabrication processes of the antenna and simulated performances are reported, and its possible use in a THz rectifying device is presented. © 2012 IEEE

U-Helix: on-chip short conical antenna MEMS technology for millimeter-wave communication and imaging

The aggressive scaling of the CMOS technology and the convergence of CMOS and MEMS technologies along the 'More Than Moore' axis of the International Technology Roadmap for Semiconductors, paves the way to the realization of millimeter-waves front-end circuits with integrated three-dimensional antennas. In this work we present a short conical helical antenna built applying MEMS micro-fabrication techniques whose dimensions can scale down to 100 μm (for operation in the THz region) and that can be integrated on silicon chips for communication and imaging purpose. Antenna design rules and methodology, electromagnetic characteristics and actual measurement are presented. © 2013 EurAAP

Porous silicon solar cells

We developed a new process for the fabrication of crystalline solar cell, based on an ultrathin silicon membrane, taking advantage of porous silicon technology. The suggested architecture allows the costs reduction of silicon based solar cell reusing the same wafer to produce a great number of membranes. The architectures combines the efficiency of crystalline silicon solar cell, with the great absorption of porous silicon, and with a more efficient way to use the material. The new process faces the main challenge to achieve an effective and not expensive passivation of the porous silicon surface, in order to achieve an efficient photovoltaic device. At the same time the process suggests a smart way to selective doping of the macroporous silicon layers despite the through-going pores. © 2015 IEEE. SciVal Topic Prominence  Topic: Porous silicon | Silicon | macroporous silicon Prominence percentile: 66.984  Author keywords nanofabricationporous siliconsilicon nanoelectronicssolar cells Indexed keywords Engineering controlled terms: Crystalline materialsNanoelectronicsNanostructured materialsNanotechnologyPorous siliconSiliconSilicon wafersSolar cells Engineering uncontrolled terms Crystalline silicon solar cellsCrystalline solar cellsMacro porous siliconPhotovoltaic devicesPorous silicon surfacesPorous silicon technologySilicon nanoelectronicsUltrathin silicon membrane Engineering main heading: Silicon solar cells ISBN: 978-146738155-0 Source Type: Conference Proceeding Original language: English DOI: 10.1109/NANO.2015.7388710 Document Type: Conference Paper Sponsors: Nanotechnology Council Publisher: Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc. References (9) View in search results format ▻ All Export  Print  E-mail Save to PDF Create bibliography 1 (2012) International Technology Roadmap for Photovoltaics Results 2012. Cited 24 times. ITRPV, Third Edition, Berlin 2012 www.ITRPV.net 2 Lehmann, V., Honlein, W., Stengl, R., Willer, J., Wendt, H. (1992) Verfahren Zur Herstellung Einer Solarzelle Aus Einer Substratscheibe. Cited 6 times. German patent DE4204455C1; Filing date: 29. 01. 3 Brendel, R., Ernst, M. Macroporous Si as an absorber for thin-film solar cells (2010) Physica Status Solidi - Rapid Research Letters, 4 (1-2), pp. 40-42. Cited 22 times. http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/cgi-bin/fulltext/123215552/PDFSTART doi: 10.1002/pssr.200903372 Locate full-text(opens in a new window) View at Publisher 4 Ernst, M., Brendel, R., Ferré, R., Harder, N.-P. Thin macroporous silicon heterojunction solar cells (2012) Physica Status Solidi - Rapid Research Letters, 6 (5), pp. 187-189. Cited 16 times. doi: 10.1002/pssr.201206113 Locate full-text(opens in a new window) View at Publisher 5 Ernst, M., Brendel, R. Macroporous silicon solar cells with an epitaxial emitter (2013) IEEE Journal of Photovoltaics, 3 (2), art. no. 6472253, pp. 723-729. Cited 7 times. doi: 10.1109/JPHOTOV.2013.2247094 Locate full-text(opens in a new window) View at Publisher 6 Ernst, M., Schulte-Huxel, H., Niepelt, R., Kajari-Schröder, S., Brendel, R. Thin crystalline macroporous silicon solar cells with ion implanted emitter (Open Access) (2013) Energy Procedia, 38, pp. 910-918. Cited 2 times. http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/18766102 doi: 10.1016/j.egypro.2013.07.364 Locate full-text(opens in a new window) View at Publisher 7 Nenzi, P., Kholostov, K., Crescenzi, R., Bondarenka, H., Bondarenko, V., Balucani, M. Electrochemically etched TSV for porous silicon interposer technologies (2013) Proceedings - Electronic Components and Technology Conference, art. no. 6575887, pp. 2201-2207. Cited 2 times. ISBN: 978-147990233-0 doi: 10.1109/ECTC.2013.6575887 Locate full-text(opens in a new window) View at Publisher 8 Perticaroli, S., Varlamava, V., Palma, F. Microwave sensing of nanostructured semiconductor surfaces (2014) Applied Physics Letters, 104 (1), art. no. 013110. Cited 3 times. doi: 10.1063/1.4861424 Locate full-text(opens in a new window) View at Publisher 9 De Cesare, G., Caputo, D., Tucci, M. Electrical properties of ITO/crystalline-silicon contact at different deposition temperatures (2012) IEEE Electron Device Letters, 33 (3), art. no. 6142006, pp. 327-329. Cited 28 times. doi: 10.1109/LED.2011.2180356 Locate full-text(opens in a new window) View at Publisher © Copyright 2017 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved. ◅ Back to results ◅ Previous 3of10 Next ▻  Top of page Metrics Learn more about article metrics in Scopus (opens in a new window)  0 Citations in Scopus 0 Learn more about Field-Weighted Citation Impact Field-Weighted Citation Impact PlumX Metrics Usage, Captures, Mentions, Social Media and Citations beyond Scopus.  Cited by 0 documents Inform me when this document is cited in Scopus: Set citation alert ▻ Set citation feed ▻ Related documents Thin crystalline macroporous silicon solar cells with ion implanted emitter Ernst, M. , Schulte-Huxel, H. , Niepelt, R. (2013) Energy Procedia Multilayer etching for kerf-free solar cells from macroporous silicon Schäfer, S. , Ernst, M. , Kajari-Schröder, S. (2013) Energy Procedia Macroporous silicon solar cells with an epitaxial emitter Ernst, M. , Brendel, R. (2013) IEEE Journal of Photovoltaics View all related documents based on references Find more related documents in Scopus based on: Authors ▻ Keywords ▻ About Scopus What is Scopus Content coverage Scopus blog Scopus API Privacy matters Language 日本語に切り替える 切换到简体中文 切換到繁體中文 Русский язык Customer Service Help Contact us Elsevier Terms and conditions ↗ Privacy policy ↗ Copyright © 2018 Elsevier B.V ↗. All rights reserved. Scopus® is a registered trademark of Elsevier B.V. We use cookies to help provide and enhance our service and tailor content. By continuing, you agree to the use of cookies. RELX Group We developed a new process for the fabrication of crystalline solar cell, based on an ultrathin silicon membrane, taking advantage of porous silicon technology. The suggested architecture allows the costs reduction of silicon based solar cell reusing the same wafer to produce a great number of membranes. The architectures combines the efficiency of crystalline silicon solar cell, with the great absorption of porous silicon, and with a more efficient way to use the material. The new process faces the main challenge to achieve an effective and not expensive passivation of the porous silicon surface, in order to achieve an efficient photovoltaic device. At the same time the process suggests a smart way to selective doping of the macroporous silicon layers despite the through-going pores