1986-03-06
1988-05-10
Carrol, J.
357 4, 357 6, 357 30, 357 61, H01L 29161, H01L 2714
Patent
active
047439491
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to an optical-electronic device with at least one infrared radiation-sensitive optical-electronic transducer which conducts or emits infrared radiation.
Optical-electronic thermal imaging cameras are known in which a multitude of infrared sensitive sensors are arranged in the focal plane of lens configuration for infrared radiation, a each of the sensors producing an electric signal relative to the intensity of prevailing infrared radiation. The totality of the electrical signals thus gained, amplified and, if necessary, corrected makes it possible to interpret the heat image, e.g., making it visible to the human eye. Previously, numerous individual sensors for detecting heat images were arranged in a one- or two-dimensional array or field. The most sensitive of these prior arrays exhibit a hybrid arrangement: The individual sensors are positioned on a chip consisting of a narrow-gap semiconductor material. The required electronic circuit configurations for amplifying and multiplexing the electric signals are configured on a second silicon chip. A separate electric connection is required between each sensor and the circuit configuration on the silicon chip, which is very impractical for a larger number of sensors and limits the number of sensors to be combined in one array. So so-called focal plane arrays are described in the periodic conference reports Proc. SPIE, Soc. Opt. Engineering, vol. 409 (1983), and earlier ones and elsewhere.
It is the goal and function of the current invention to create an optical-electronic device of the type described above which, instead of a relatively complicated hybrid configuration, has a considerably simplified monolithic configuration, enabling it, e.g., to integrate an increased number of infrared sensors or infrared-radiation emitting diodes within one device.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present optical-electronic device is characterized by the fact that on one semiconductor substrate, with the help of at least one intermediate layer, grown epitaxially on the substrate, an additional semiconductor layer is grown epitaxially from a narrow-gap semiconductor, that into this narrow-gap semiconductor layer the optical-electronic transducer is integrated, and that the intermediate layer at each of its interfaces with the semiconductor substrate and with the narrow-gap semiconductor layer there are lattice constants which lie between or close to those of the semiconductor substrate or, respectively, those of the narrow-gap semiconductor layers.
Thus, as a result of the invention, it is now possible to connect through epitaxy a narrow-gap semiconductor layer and a semiconductor substrate with significantly different lattice constants into a monolithic electronic device with the aid of at least one intermediate layer. It has been shown that by choosing the right type of intermediate layer, an epitaxial connection of the intermediate layer with the semiconductor substrate and with the narrow-gap semiconductor layer is also possible when the lattice constants of each of the adjoining materials do not exactly correspond.
The intermediate layer can be appropriately constructed out of two or more partial intermediate layers with varying lattice constants in such a way that at each of the interfaces of adjoining layers--including the semiconductor substrate and the narrow-gap semiconductor layer--the lattice constants of the various materials differ only insignificantly from one another.
In the case of another useful design of the device of the invention, the intermediate layer consists of a mixed crystal whose composition is gradually altered over the thickness of the intermediate layer in such a way that the intermediate layer at its interfaces to the semiconductor substrate and to the narrow-gap semiconductor layer exhibits lattice constants which are close to the lattice constants of the semiconductor substrate or, respectively, to the narrow-gap semiconductor layer.
The material of the intermediate layer is preferab
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