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Thin-film image sensors with a pinned photodiode structure

Nature Electronics volume 6, pages 590–598 (2023)Cite this article

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Abstract

Image sensors made using silicon complementary metal–oxide–semiconductor technology can be found in numerous electronic devices and typically rely on pinned photodiode structures. Photodiodes based on thin films can have a high absorption coefficient and a wider wavelength range than silicon devices. However, their use in image sensors has been limited by high kTC noise, dark current and image lag. Here we show that thin-film-based image sensors with a pinned photodiode structure can have comparable noise performance to a silicon pinned photodiode pixel. We integrate either a visible-to-near-infrared organic photodiode or a short-wave infrared colloidal quantum dot photodiode with a thin-film transistor and silicon readout circuitry. The thin-film pinned photodiode structures exhibit low kTC noise, suppressed dark current, high full-well capacity and high electron-to-voltage conversion gain, as well as preserving the benefits of the thin-film materials. An image sensor based on the organic absorber has a quantum efficiency of 54% at 940 nm and read noise of 6.1e–.

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Fig. 1: Structure of the thin-film PPD pixel.
Fig. 2: Fabrication and characterization of TF-PPD pixel.
Fig. 3: Processed TF-PPD test structures.
Fig. 4: Transient operation of the test TF-PPD structures.
Fig. 5: TF-PPD image sensor demonstration.

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Data availability

The data that support the plots within this paper and other findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to acknowledge the support from the Mitsubishi Chemical Corporation for providing the organic semiconductor materials used in this study.

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Author notes

  1. These authors contributed equally: Jiwon Lee, Epimitheas Georgitzikis.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. imec, Leuven, Belgium

    Jiwon Lee, Epimitheas Georgitzikis, Yannick Hermans, Nikolas Papadopoulos, Naresh Chandrasekaran, Minhyun Jin, Abu Bakar Siddik, Florian De Roose, Griet Uytterhoeven, Joo Hyoung Kim, Renaud Puybaret, Yunlong Li, Vladimir Pejovic, Gauri Karve, David Cheyns, Jan Genoe, Paweł E. Malinowski, Paul Heremans & Kris Myny

  2. Department of Photonics and Nanoelectronics, BK21 FOUR ERICA-ACE Center, Hanyang University ERICA, Ansan, Korea

    Jiwon Lee

  3. Dongguk University, Seoul, Korea

    Minhyun Jin

  4. ESAT, KU Leuven, Heverlee, Belgium

    Abu Bakar Siddik, Jan Genoe, Paul Heremans & Kris Myny

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Contributions

J.L. and E.G. designed, performed and analysed the experiments. P.H., P.E.M. and K.M. analysed the experiments. N.P. and F.D.R. designed the experiments. M.J. and J.H.K. performed the experiments. Y.H., A.B.S., D.C., V.P. and G.U. performed the photodiode analysis and fabrication. N.C., R.P., Y.L. and G.K. performed the fabrication. All authors have reviewed the paper.

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Correspondence to Jiwon Lee.

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Lee, J., Georgitzikis, E., Hermans, Y. et al. Thin-film image sensors with a pinned photodiode structure. Nat Electron 6, 590–598 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41928-023-01016-9

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