EP0134411A1
Expired / Lapsed
EP
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Energy discriminator, for example a colour vidicon
Assignee: International Business Machines Corp
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Filing: 1984-05-28
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Granted: —
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Expires: 2004-05-28
Abstract
Abstract In a vidicon, optical energy enters through a transparent receiving surface (37) into a multilayer semiconductor monocrystalline body in which it is converted into hole-electron pair carriers in different particular overlying energy responsive layers (12, 13, 14) and the electrons thereof are collected in potential wells associated with the particular layer. Each pixel is isolated from adjoining pixels by isolation regions (20, 22), and readout contacts (26, 27, 29) for the layers are separated by isolation regions (28, 30).
Inventors
- 👤 Barbara Alane Chappell
- 👤 Terry Ivan Chappell
- 👤 Jerry Macpherson Woodall
Bibliographic Details
Application Number
—
Jurisdiction
EP
Data Source
google_patents
Last Synchronized
2026-11-08 06:38
CPC Classifications
H; H10; H10F; H10F39/00; H10F39/10; H10F39/12; H10F39/18; H10F39/182; H10F39/1825; H01; H01J; H01J29/00; H01J29/02; H01J29/10; H01J29/36; H01J29/39; H01J29/45
Claims Analysis
Total Claims: 14
Claim 1
Independent Claim
82 words
An energy discriminator of the type wherein a beam of energy is received through a receiving surface of a multiparallel layer, monocrystalline semiconductor body, each layer thereof being responsive to a particular energy component of said beam by forming hole electron pair carriers therein, the improvement comprising means for producing in said monocrystalline semiconductor body an electron retaining potential well associated with each layer of said body and readout means for transferring the charge from said retained electrons into an output signal.
Claim 2
Dependent Claim
82 words
An energy discriminator of the type wherein a beam of energy is received through a receiving surface of a multiparallel layer, monocrystalline semiconductor body, each layer thereof being responsive to a particular energy component of said beam by forming hole electron pair carriers therein, the improvement comprising means for producing in said monocrystalline semiconductor body an electron retaining potential well associated with each layer of said body and readout means for transferring the charge from said retained electrons into an output signal.
Claim 3
Dependent Claim
39 words
The discriminator of claim 1 wherein said means for producing said potential wells is a low conductivity for each layer with a thin highly doped p and a thin highly doped n region adjacent the interface between said layers.
Claim 4
Dependent Claim
17 words
The discriminator of claim 1 wherein said readout means is a bias signal on a gating contact.
Claim 5
Dependent Claim
32 words
The discriminator of claim 3 wherein said semiconductor body is low conductivity GaAs and said highly doped p and n regions are doped to the order of 10 17 atoms per cc.
Claim 6
Dependent Claim
70 words
An optical-to-electrical signal conversion device comprising in combination a monocrystalline semiconductor body having a plurality of planar essentially undoped layers essentially parallel to a light incident surface, each said layer bounded by a thin heavily doped p and a thin heavily doped n region of a thickness of the order of the mean free path of an electron, and a read out electrode forming an ohmic contact to each layer.
Claim 7
Dependent Claim
70 words
An optical-to-electrical signal conversion device comprising in combination a monocrystalline semiconductor body having a plurality of planar essentially undoped layers essentially parallel to a light incident surface, each said layer bounded by a thin heavily doped p and a thin heavily doped n region of a thickness of the order of the mean free path of an electron, and a read out electrode forming an ohmic contact to each layer.
Claim 8
Dependent Claim
20 words
The device of claim 5 wherein said semiconductor is GaAs and each 0 thin highly doped region is 50A wide.
Claim 9
Dependent Claim
69 words
The device of claim 5 or 6 wherein there are three layers each for the colors red, green and blue, the thickness dimension of the red absorbing region most remote from the light incident surface being 1.3 micrometers, the thickness dimension of the green absorbing region next less remote from said light incident surface being 0.175 micrometers and the thickness dimension of said blue absorbing region being 0.025 micrometers.
Claim 10
Dependent Claim
31 words
An array of devices each according to claim 5, 6 or 7 and formed in the same semiconductor body wherein carrier migration isolation is provided surrounding each device of said array.
Claim 11
Dependent Claim
84 words
A color vidicon comprising in combination a plurality of color pixels, each pixel comprising a three essentially parallel layer monocrystalline semiconductor body, each layer thereof being primarily responsive to one of red, green and blue light wavelength by forming hole-electron pair carriers therein, an electron retaining potential well associated with each said layer and readout means for transferring the charge from said retained electrons in each said pixel to an output signal, said transfer means including gating means and vertical and horizontal scan controls.
Claim 12
Dependent Claim
84 words
A color vidicon comprising in combination a plurality of color pixels, each pixel comprising a three essentially parallel layer monocrystalline semiconductor body, each layer thereof being primarily responsive to one of red, green and blue light wavelength by forming hole-electron pair carriers therein, an electron retaining potential well associated with each said layer and readout means for transferring the charge from said retained electrons in each said pixel to an output signal, said transfer means including gating means and vertical and horizontal scan controls.
Claim 13
Dependent Claim
18 words
The vidicon of claim 9 wherein adjacent rows of said pixels have adjacent pairs of horizontal scan lines.
Claim 14
Dependent Claim
21 words
The vidicon of claim 10 wherein each column of said pixels has a separate vertical scan control for each primary color.
References Cited (Backward Citations)
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