Optoelectric transducer
First Claim
1. An optoelectric transducer operative to produce electric charges in the presence of incident light, comprising:
- (a) a carrier injected region with a first conductivity type formed of a nondegeneratively doped semiconductor material;
(b) a potential-barrier region contiguous to said carrier injected region for producing a first homojunction and formed of a material selected from the group consisting of as first semiconductor material of said first conductivity type lower in impurity atom concentration than said carrier injected region, an intrinsic semiconductor material and a second semiconductor material of a second conductivity type opposite to said first conductivity type;
(c) a photoelectric converting region with said first conductivity type formed of a degeneratively doped semiconductor material and operative to produce hot majority carriers and hot minority carriers upon an illumination of said incident light, said hot majority carriers being injected into said carrier injected region, a second homojunction being formed between said potential-barrier region and said photoelectric converting region, said second semiconductor material having a thickness and an impurity atom concentration selected in such a manner as to be perfectly depleted due to depletion layers extending from said first and second homojunctions in at least an electric charge producing operation; and
(d) short-circuit means electrically interconnecting said photoelectric converting region and said potential-barrier region, in which a cut-off wavelength of said incident light is decided by a barrier height at said second homojunction, wherein said short-circuit means provides a potential barrier lower than that between said potential-barrier region and said photoelectric converting region with respect to minority carriers produced in the photoelectric converting region.
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Accused Products
Abstract
For precise selection of a cut-off wavelength of an incident light, there is disclosed an optoelectric transducer operative to produce an electric charges on the basis of an incident light, comprising, (a) a carrier injected region with a first conductivity type formed of a non-degenerative semiconductor material and having a surface capable of being illuminated by the incident light, (b) a potential-barrier region, a first homojunction being formed between the carrier injected region and the potential-barrier region, and (c) a photoelectric converting region with the first conductivity type formed of a degenerative semiconductor material, a second homojunction being formed between the potential-barrier region and the photoelectric converting region, wherein a potential barrier is formed at the second homojunction between the potential-barrier region and the photoelectric converting region, so that it is possible to form the potential-barrier with a arbitrary height by selecting the two semiconductor materials for the potential-barrier region and the photoelectric converting region.
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Citations
18 Claims
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1. An optoelectric transducer operative to produce electric charges in the presence of incident light, comprising:
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(a) a carrier injected region with a first conductivity type formed of a nondegeneratively doped semiconductor material; (b) a potential-barrier region contiguous to said carrier injected region for producing a first homojunction and formed of a material selected from the group consisting of as first semiconductor material of said first conductivity type lower in impurity atom concentration than said carrier injected region, an intrinsic semiconductor material and a second semiconductor material of a second conductivity type opposite to said first conductivity type; (c) a photoelectric converting region with said first conductivity type formed of a degeneratively doped semiconductor material and operative to produce hot majority carriers and hot minority carriers upon an illumination of said incident light, said hot majority carriers being injected into said carrier injected region, a second homojunction being formed between said potential-barrier region and said photoelectric converting region, said second semiconductor material having a thickness and an impurity atom concentration selected in such a manner as to be perfectly depleted due to depletion layers extending from said first and second homojunctions in at least an electric charge producing operation; and (d) short-circuit means electrically interconnecting said photoelectric converting region and said potential-barrier region, in which a cut-off wavelength of said incident light is decided by a barrier height at said second homojunction, wherein said short-circuit means provides a potential barrier lower than that between said potential-barrier region and said photoelectric converting region with respect to minority carriers produced in the photoelectric converting region. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18)
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Specification