Silicon Schottky Barrier Monolithic IRTV Focal Planes

Publisher Summary This chapter provides an overview of silicon Schottky barrier monolithic IRTV focal planes. The characteristics of infrared radiation impose considerable constraints on the design of infrared television cameras. Signals from infrared scenes have low contrast and a large uniform background component; whereas signals from visible scenes have much higher contrast and negligible background. This chapter describes a new type of retina that is based on internal photoemission from the metal photocathodes of large two dimensional arrays of silicon Schottky barrier diodes. The Schottky retina photoresponse is independent, to first order, of both minority carrier lifetime and impurity density. The exclusive use of silicon monolithic processing technology in the fabrication of Schottky retinas is expected to lead to photoresponse uniformities that are good enough to provide a basis for a viable infrared television camera. It is also expected that Schottky retina cameras, operating in the 3 to 5 μm spectral band, will be capable of performance comparable with state-of-the-art line scanners. The use of Schottky retina cameras is expected to lead to significant reductions in the complexity and cost of thermal imaging systems.