Radiation detector with an epitaxially grown semiconductor body

• US 7,525,083 B2
• Filed: 09/29/2005
• Issued: 04/28/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 09/30/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: OSRAM OLED GMBH (Ams-Osram AG)
• Original Assignee: Osram Opto Semiconductors GmbH (Ams-Osram AG)
• Inventors: Stauss, Peter, Jaeger, Arndt
• Primary Examiner(s): Le; Que T
• Assistant Examiner(s): Bui-Pho; Pascal M
• Application Number:
  US11/240,987
• Publication Number:
  US 20070241260A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,307 Days
• Field of Search: 250/226, 250/214.1, 250/339.01, 250/208.1, 250/338.4, 250/339.05, 257/440, 257/431
• US Class Current: 250/226
• CPC Class Codes: G01J 2003/516 with several stacked filters or stacked filter-detector pairs
• CPC Class Codes: G01J 3/513 having fixed filter-detector pairs
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 31/02162 for filtering or shielding light, e.g. multicolour filters for photodetectors
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 31/03046 including ternary or quaternary compounds, e.g. GaAlAs, InGaAs, InGaAsP
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 31/035209 comprising a quantum structures
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 31/1013 devices sensitive to two or more wavelengths, e.g. multi-spectrum radiation detection devices
• CPC Class Codes: Y02E 10/544 Solar cells from Group III-V materials

Abstract

A radiation detector comprising a plurality of detector elements (1, 2, 3) each having an active region (14, 24, 34) provided for radiation reception and for signal generation, the detector elements being monolithically integrated into a semiconductor body (5) of the radiation detector, a signal that is to be generated in a first detector element being able to be tapped off separately from a signal that is to be generated in a second detector element, and at least one of the active regions being designed for radiation reception in the visible spectral range.

Claims

1. A radiation detector comprising:

an epitaxially grown semiconductor body comprising a III-V semiconductor material and having a radiation entry side; and

a plurality of detector elements each having an active region provided for radiation reception and for signal generation, the plurality of detector elements being monolithically integrated into the semiconductor body, wherein a signal generated in a first detector element of the plurality of detector elements can be tapped off separately from a signal generated in a second detector element of the plurality of detector elements,

each of the active regions of the first detector element and the second detector element is arranged between a barrier layer and a counter-barrier layer, and the barrier layer and the counter-barrier layer are of different conduction types,

the first detector element and the second detector element are each assigned a contact layer and a counter-contact layer, and the contact layer and the counter-contact layer are monolithically integrated into the semiconductor body,

at least one of the contact layer and the counter-contact layer is arranged between two adjacent ones of the plurality of detector elements, and the contact layer and the counter-contact layer are of different conduction types,

the conduction types in the semiconductor body between two adjacent active regions, are identical,

the first detector element is partly transmissive to visible radiation, and

the visible radiation that passes through the first detector element generates a signal in the second detector element.

2. The radiation detector as claimed in claim 1, wherein the active regions in the semiconductor body of adjacent ones of the plurality of detector elements are spaced apart from one another.

3. The radiation detector as claimed in claim 1, wherein at least one of the plurality of detector elements has a spectral sensitivity distribution with a maximum at a predetermined maximum wavelength.

4. The radiation detector as claimed in claim 3, wherein the spectral sensitivity distributions of at least two of the plurality of detector elements have different maximum wavelengths.

5. The radiation detector as claimed in claim 3, wherein the spectral sensitivity distributions of at least two of the plurality of detector elements overlap.

6. The radiation detector as claimed in claim 3, wherein the maximum wavelengths of the spectral sensitivity distributions of the plural detector elements increase with increasing distance between the plurality of detector elements and the radiation entry side of the radiation to be received by the radiation detector into the semiconductor body.

7. The radiation detector as claimed in claim 1, wherein the radiation detector is designed for detecting radiation in a predetermined continuous wavelength range.

8. The radiation detector as claimed in claim 1, wherein at least one of the active regions has a single quantum well structure or a multiple quantum well structure or a heterostructure.

9. The radiation detector as claimed in claim 1, wherein a filter layer structure with at least one filter layer is arranged downstream of at least one of the plurality of detector elements in the direction of the radiation entry side of the semiconductor body.

10. The radiation detector as claimed in claim 9, wherein the filter layer structure is designed for absorbing wavelengths in a wavelength range comprising wavelengths less than the maximum wavelength of the spectral sensitivity distribution of said at least one of the plurality of detector elements.

11. The radiation detector as claimed in claim 9, wherein the contact layer or the counter-contact layer of at least one of the plurality of detector elements is simultaneously designed as a filter layer of a filter layer structure assigned to this detector element.

12. The radiation detector as claimed in claim 9, wherein the active region of the second detector element has a functional layer and at least one of the filter layers of the filter layer structure has a band gap which is larger than the band gap of the functional layer of the second detector element.

13. The radiation detector as claimed in claim 9, wherein the filter layer structure comprises at least one III-V semiconductor material.

14. The radiation detector as claimed in claim 1, wherein the III-V semiconductor material is a material from the material systems In_xGa_yAl_1-x-yP, In_xGa_yAl_1-x-yAs or In_xGa_yAl_1-x-yN in each case where 0≦

x≦

1, 0≦

y≦

1 and x+y≦

1.

15. The radiation detector as claimed in claim 1, wherein the plural detector elements are designed for detecting varicolored radiations.

16. The radiation detector as claimed in claim 1, wherein the plurality of detector elements comprise three detector elements which are designed for detecting radiation in the blue, green and red spectral range, respectively.

17. The radiation detector as claimed in claim 1, wherein the radiation detector is designed for determining spectral color components in the radiation to be received by the radiation detector.

18. The radiation detector as claimed in claim 1, wherein the radiation detector is designed for determining the color impression of radiation incident on the detector.

19. The radiation detector as claimed in claim 1, wherein at least one of the active region and a filter layer structure of at least one of the plurality of detector elements comprises at least one III-V semiconductor material.

20. The radiation detector as claimed in claim 1, wherein each detector element is arranged between the assigned contact layer and the assigned counter-contact layer.

21. The radiation detector as claimed in claim 1, wherein the contact layers and the counter-contact layer are spaced apart from one another in the vertical direction.

22. The radiation detector as claimed in claim 1, wherein the entire semiconductor body is based on III-V semiconductor materials.

23. A radiation detector comprising:

an epitaxially grown semiconductor body having a radiation entry side; and

a plurality of detector elements each having an active region provided for radiation reception and for signal generation, the plurality of detector elements being monolithically integrated into the semiconductor body;

wherein;

the semiconductor body comprises a III-V semiconductor material,

the first and the second detector elements are each assigned a contact layer and a counter-contact layer and at least one of the contact layer and the counter-contact layer is arranged between two adjacent ones of the plurality of detector elements, the contact layers and the counter-contact layers being of different conduction types,

the lateral extent of the detector elements increases as the vertical direction from the radiation entry side increases,

terminals are arranged on and electrically conductively connected to the contact layers and the counter-contact layers such that a signal generated in a first detector element of the plurality of detector elements can be tapped off separately from a signal generated in a second detector element of the plurality of detector elements,

the first detector element is partly transmissive to visible radiation, and

visible radiation that passes through the first detector element generates a signal in the second detector element.

24. The radiation detector as claimed in claim 23, wherein the plurality of detector elements are in each case assigned a contact layer and a counter-contact layer and at least one of the contact layer and the counter-contact layer is arranged between two adjacent ones of the plurality of detector elements.

25. The radiation detector as claimed in claim 24, wherein two adjacent ones of the plurality of detector elements have a common contact layer or a common counter-contact layer.

26. The radiation detector as claimed in claim 23, wherein the contact layers and the counter-contact layers have different conduction types.

27. The radiation detector as claimed in claim 23, wherein the semiconductor body has a staircase-like structure.