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Broadband image sensor array based on graphene–CMOS integration

Nature Photonics volume 11, pages 366–371 (2017)Cite this article

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Abstract

Integrated circuits based on complementary metal-oxide–semiconductors (CMOS) are at the heart of the technological revolution of the past 40 years, enabling compact and low-cost microelectronic circuits and imaging systems. However, the diversification of this platform into applications other than microcircuits and visible-light cameras has been impeded by the difficulty to combine semiconductors other than silicon with CMOS. Here, we report the monolithic integration of a CMOS integrated circuit with graphene, operating as a high-mobility phototransistor. We demonstrate a high-resolution, broadband image sensor and operate it as a digital camera that is sensitive to ultraviolet, visible and infrared light (300–2,000 nm). The demonstrated graphene–CMOS integration is pivotal for incorporating 2D materials into the next-generation microelectronics, sensor arrays, low-power integrated photonics and CMOS imaging systems covering visible, infrared and terahertz frequencies.

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Figure 1: Back-end-of-line CMOS integration of CVD graphene with 388 × 288 pixel image sensor read-out circuit.
Figure 2: Hybrid graphene–CQD-based image sensor and digital camera system.
Figure 3: Electro-optical characterization.
Figure 4: Visible, near-infrared and short-wave infrared sensitivity, and night glow measurement.

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Acknowledgements

The authors acknowledge M. Montagut and F. Vialla for creating original artwork. F.K. and G.K. acknowledge financial support from the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness, through the ‘Severo Ochoa’ Programme for Centres of Excellence in R&D (SEV-2015–0522), support by Fundacio Cellex Barcelona, and CERCA Programme/Generalitat de Catalunya, from the Government of Catalonia through the SGR grant (2014-SGR-1535) and from the Ajuntament de Barcelona. Furthermore, the research leading to these results has received funding from the European Union Seventh Framework Programme under grant agreement no. 696656 Graphene Flagship and ERC Proof-of-concept GRAQUADOT (reference 620233). G.K. acknowledges financial support from the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (MINECO) and the ‘Fondo Europeo de Desarrollo Regional’ (FEDER) through grant MAT2014-56210-R as well as AGAUR under the SGR grant (2014SGR1548).

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Author notes

  1. Stijn Goossens, Gabriele Navickaite, Carles Monasterio and Shuchi Gupta: These authors contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. ICFO-Institut de Ciencies Fotoniques, The Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology, Castelldefels (Barcelona), 08860, Spain

    Stijn Goossens, Gabriele Navickaite, Carles Monasterio, Shuchi Gupta, Juan José Piqueras, Raúl Pérez, Gregory Burwell, Ivan Nikitskiy, Tania Lasanta, Teresa Galán, Eric Puma, Gerasimos Konstantatos & Frank Koppens

  2. Graphenea SA, 20018, Donostia-San Sebastian, Spain

    Alba Centeno, Amaia Pesquera & Amaia Zurutuza

  3. ICREA – Institució Catalana de Recerça i Estudis Avançats, Lluis Companys 23, Barcelona, 08010, Spain

    Gerasimos Konstantatos & Frank Koppens

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  1. Stijn Goossens
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Contributions

S.Go planned and supervised the experiments and wrote the manuscript. G.N. designed and fabricated all the devices and performed measurements. C.M. performed measurements and data analysis. S.Gu synthesized materials and contributed to material characterization. J.J.P. developed measurement procedures, and contributed to planning of the experiment. R.P. and G.B. developed fabrication procedures. T.G. and I.N. contributed to device fabrication and characterization. E.P. contributed to measurements. T.L. contributed to the synthesis of materials. A.C., A.P. and A.Z. provided materials. F.K. and G.K. supervised the study and wrote the manuscript. All authors provided input to data analysis, discussed the results and assisted in manuscript preparation.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Gerasimos Konstantatos or Frank Koppens.

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The authors declare no competing financial interests.

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Goossens, S., Navickaite, G., Monasterio, C. et al. Broadband image sensor array based on graphene–CMOS integration. Nature Photon 11, 366–371 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1038/nphoton.2017.75

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