A Silicon Carbide 256 Pixel UV Image Sensor Array Operating at 400 °C

• Published in: IEEE journal of the Electron Devices Society Vol. 8; pp. 116 - 121
• Main Authors: Hou, Shuoben, Shakir, Muhammad, Hellstrom, Per-Erik, Malm, Bengt Gunnar, Zetterling, Carl-Mikael, Ostling, Mikael
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York IEEE 2020; The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE)
• Subjects: Astronomy; bipolar junction transistor (BJT); Circuit design; Circuits; Decoders; Digital electronics; Electronic circuits; High temperature; Image detection; image sensor; Image sensors; Light emitting diodes; Optoelectronic devices; photodiode; Photodiodes; Photography; Pixels; Semiconductor devices; Sensor arrays; Sensors; Silicon carbide; Silicon carbide (SiC); Temperature sensors; Transistor logic; transistor-transistor logic (TTL); Transistors; ultraviolet (UV); Ultraviolet radiation
• ISSN: 2168-6734; 2168-6734
• DOI: 10.1109/JEDS.2020.2966680

An image sensor based on wide band gap silicon carbide (SiC) has the merits of high temperature operation and ultraviolet (UV) detection. To realize a SiC-based image sensor the challenge of opto-electronic on-chip integration of SiC photodetectors and digital electronic circuits must be addressed. Here, we demonstrate a novel SiC image sensor based on our in-house bipolar technology. The sensing part has 256 (16×16) pixels. The digital circuit part for row and column selection contains two 4-to-16 decoders and one 8-bit counter. The digital circuits are designed in transistor-transistor logic (TTL). The entire circuit has 1959 transistors. It is the first demonstration of SiC opto-electronic on-chip integration. The function of the image sensor up to 400 °C has been verified by taking photos of the spatial patterns masked from UV light. The image sensor would play a significant role in UV photography, which has important applications in astronomy, clinics, combustion detection and art.