Westinghouse Electric Corporation

Dieter K Schroder

Paul R Malmberg

Nathan Bluzer

Harvey C Nathanson

Arthur S Jensen

Prosenjit Rai-Choudhury

Robert A Wickstrom

Terrance M Heng

A charge-coupled device includes an insulation layer which is interfaced with a semiconductor wafer. Gating electrodes that are responsive to clocking signals are located on the surface of the insulation layer which is oppositely disposed from the interface with the semiconductor wafer such that the electric field produced by the potential on the electrodes has a substantial lateral component in the plane of the semiconductor-insulator interface. The lateral field component induced in the semiconductor wafer reduces the transfer time of charge carriers between adjacent electrodes thereby improving the transport response of the charge carriers to the clocking signals. A method for making the sloped oxide charge-coupled device is also described in which the insulation layer grown on a semiconductor is provided with sloped areas and the electrodes are evaporated onto these sloped areas to form the device's clocking structure.

Method of making a sloped insulator charge-coupled device

A radiant energy sensor is described incorporating a crystalline substrate having a surface suitable for receiving radiant energy and a plurality of detectors for converting radiant energy into electrical signals wherein optical reflections and blooming between detectors is reduced by optical absorption of the radiant energy in heavily doped layers positioned at or beyond the ends of the detectors.

Radiant energy sensor with reduced optical reflection and blooming

A semiconductor device such as a film or hybrid integrated circuit is provided having a relatively lightly doped, epitaxially grown silicon layer with a relatively long minority carrier lifetime. The lightly doped silicon layer of less than about 1.times.10.sup.17 per cm.sup.3 is grown on a heavily doped silicon layer of greater than about 1.times.10.sup.19 and preferably greater than about 1.times.10.sup.20 per cm.sup.3 formed with phosphorus or boron impurity. The heavily doped silicon layer is preferably formed, either in a semiconductor body or an epitaxial layer on an insulator substrate, preferably by diffusing the impurity into the body or epitaxial layer. Preferably, the semiconductor device is a thin-film device and most desirably a silicon-on-sapphire device.

Epitaxially grown silicon layers with relatively long minority carrier

An acousto-electric device provides a memory for a reference signal and provides for the convolution or correlation of input signals with the reference signal. The reference signal is transduced onto a piezoelectric surface to establish an electric field which determines the transfer and recombination of minority carriers across the p-n junction matrix of an adjacent semiconductor thereby creating a space-charge region in the semiconductor which is a spatial replication of the reference signal. The signal may be recovered in relation to the amplitude modulation of a carrier signal. For correlation or convolution of the reference signal with input signals, the input signals are provided to first or second terminals respectively and transduced onto the piezoelectric surface to produce electric fields which interact with the space-charge region of the stored reference signal to provide a product current whose integration comprises the correlation or convolution output.

Acousto-electric signal convolver, correlator and memory

A charge storage device of the type in which a target electrode provides a plurality of spatially distributed charge storage sites formed on an output side of a semiconductor wafer with means associated with the storage sites for sensing and converting the charge on the storage sites into an electrical signal. Input excitation is directed onto the other or input side of the semiconductor wafer and may be in the form of electrons or light capable of generating electron-hole pairs within the semiconductor wafer which diffuse through to the storage sites. The output side of the semiconductor wafer is provided with an apertured insulating layer with a reading electron beam making contact through the apertures in the insulating coating to the spatially distributed storage sites. This invention is directed to improvements in the storage sites within the apertures of the insulating layer of said target electrode so that electron contact areas extend above the surface of the insulating layer and overlap at least a portion of the adjacent insulating layer and to methods of manufacturing said target electrode.

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Pittsburgh, PA, United States of America

Dieter K Schroder