Hughes Aircraft Company

Michael D Jack

David H Alexander

N John Koda

Randahl B Lloyd

George H Hershman

Steven D Gaalema

A transistorized monolithic focal plane array is formed on a semiconductive substrate and comprises a plurality of detectors associated with a corresponding plurality of source follower or inverter transistors. The array is row addressable. The gate of the source follower transistor comprises a floating node which is charged by the corresponding detector in proportion to the incident photon flux, the gate being periodically reset. The invention combines the advantages of compactness and low capacitance of charge coupled device imagers and low noise characteristics of prior art imagers comprising discrete transistors.

Transistorized focal plane having floating gate output nodes

A monolithic imager utilizing a plurality of detector cells for detecting the presence of radiation and producing a two dimensional mapping thereof. The detector cells are arrayed in a matrix having a square center surrounded by a number of polygonal rings so that a relatively high resolution mapping of detected radiation is achieved at the center of the imager.

Monolithic imager

A monolithic imager utilizing a plurality of detector cells is formed on a common intrinsic substrate. Backside illumination in the near-IR region generates hole-electron pairs in the intrinsic material which may be depleted throughout its thickness by CCD-range voltages applied by the imager's readout structure to a over-lying, thinly doped epitaxial layer. Minority carriers migrate toward a collection node which is formed in the epitaxial layer (and protrudes into the substrate), accumulating in an inversion layer at the surface of the epitaxial layer. The accumulated charge is advanced to an output diffusion in the epitaxial layer by means of a readout system which provides semi-random addressing of the transfer gate electrodes of the individual detector cells.

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Carlsbad, CA, United States of America

Michael D Jack