The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Jan. 16, 1990
Filed:
Sep. 15, 1987
Clyde G Bethea, Plainfield, NJ (US);
Kwong-Kit Choi, North Plainfield, NJ (US);
Barry F Levine, Livingston, NJ (US);
Roger J Malik, Summit, NJ (US);
John F Walker, Westfield, NJ (US);
American Telephone and Telegraph Company, AT&T Bell Laboratories, Murray Hill, NJ (US);
Abstract
A narrow-bandwidth, high-speed infrared radiation detector is based on tunneling of photo-excited electrons out of quantum wells. Infrared radiation incident on a superlattice of doped quantum wells gives rise to intersubband resonance radiation which excites electrons from the ground state into an excited state. A photocurrent results from excited electrons tunneling out of quantum wells. Conveniently, Group III-V materials can be used in device manufacture. Preferably, quantum well potential barriers are shaped so as to facilitate resonant tunneling of photocurrents as compared with dark current. Preferred device operation is at elevated bias voltage, giving rise to enhancement of photocurrent by a quantum-well-avalanche effect.