Gated Lateral p-i-n Junction Device for Light Sensing

We describe a silicon-based lateral p-i-n junction device for light sensing applications. This device is based on metal-oxide-semiconductor (MOS) architecture and, therefore, has a gate for controlling its electrical operating point. Device fabrication is described in brief, followed by a description of the device´s electrical and optoelectronic properties including current-voltage characteristics and optical transfer characteristics. It shows good linearity and high optical responsivity of 20 and 16 A/W for red and blue light, respectively. The associated gate can be used to control the quiescent operating point thus making it easy to interface the detector with ordinary metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistors (MOSFETs).