Platinum Silicide Schottky-Barrier IR-CCD Image Sensors

A 64 × 32-element Si monolithic IR-CCD array with the improved PtSi/p-Si Schottky-Barrier (S.B.) detectors has been developed. The improvement of the photoyield was achieved by the structure with no interconnection metal over the detectors and the thinner PtSi film for the S.B. The physical mechanism of the higher photoyield is discussed taking into account the carrier reflection at interfaces (PtSi–Si and PtSi–SiN). The performance of the 64 × 32 IR-CCD was sufficient enough to obtain a thermal image in the 3 to 5 µm atmospheric window range.