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Electrostatic and Dynamic Analysis of P+PNP Double Junction Type and P+PNPN Triple Junction Type Pinned Photodiodes

Received: 28 May 2021    Accepted: 10 June 2021    Published: 16 June 2021
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Abstract

This paper explains the device structure and operation of image sensors and solar cells. Both are semiconductor devices operating with the same physical principle of detecting photons. A high efficiency of the photon to electron energy conversion is very much desired in both devices. Image sensors now use a very advanced and scaled down CMOS fabrication process technology to achieve high performance features such as the excellent short wave blue light sensitivity for good color reproduction, the low noise and the no image lag picture quality for filmless and mechanical free action cameras. On the other hand, solar cells are still now built with the primitive floating N+P single junction type photodiode to minimize the fabrication process cost but with very low energy conversion efficiency of about 20%. It is explained in details that the depletion region of the PN junction is not the only place where we can achieve photo electron and hole pair separations effectively. The short-wave blue light has only 1000 Å silicon crystal penetration depth. The pinned surface P+P Gaussian doping profile has a very important role to achieve a better photon to energy conversion efficiency, especially for the short-wave blue light. Electrostatic and dynamic behaviors of Pinned Surface P+PNP Double Junction type Dynamic Photo Transistor and Pinned Surface P+PNPN Triple Junction type Dynamic Photo Thyristor are analyzed in details. Both of them are shown to be expected to have much excellent photon-to-electron energy conversion efficiency.

Published in International Journal of Systems Science and Applied Mathematics (Volume 6, Issue 2)
DOI 10.11648/j.ijssam.20210602.13
Page(s) 55-76
Creative Commons

This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited.

Copyright

Copyright © The Author(s), 2024. Published by Science Publishing Group

Keywords

Pinned Buried Photodiode, Double Junction Dynamic Photo Transistor, Triple Junction Dynamic Photo Thyristor, Empty Potential Well, Rotary Shutter, Global Shutter, Surface Barrier Potential, Double Junction Type Solar Cell

References
[1] H. Nyquist, “Thermal agitation of electric charge in conductors,” Physical Review 32, 110–113 (1928).
[2] W. S. Boyle and G. E. Smith, “Charge Coupled Semiconductor Devices,” B. S. T. J., 49, No. 4 (April 1970) pp. 587-593.
[3] R. H. Walden, R. H. Krambeck, R. J. Strain, J. McKenna, N. L. Schrywer and G. E. Smith, “The Buried Channel Charge Coupled Devices”, B. S. T. J. BRIEF, 51, No. 7 (September 1972), pp. 1635-1640.
[4] Y. Kanoh, T. Ando, H. Matsumoto, Y. Hagiwara and T. Hashimoto, "Interline Transfer CCD Image Sensor", Technical Journal of Television Society, ED 481, pp. 47-52, Jan 24, 1980.
[5] Yoshiaki Hagiwara, Japanese Patent No. 1215101 (Japanese Patent Application JPA 1975-134985) on the Pinned surface P+NP double junction type Pinned Photodiode on N-type substrate wafer (Nsub), forming a P+NPNsub triple junction dynamic photo thyristor type PPD with the VOD function.
[6] Yoshiaki Hagiwara, Motoaki Abe and Chikara Okada, "A 380H X 488V CCD Imager with Narrow Channel Transfer Gates", Proceeding of the 9th Conference on Solid State Devices, Tokyo 1977, Japanese Journal of Applied Physics, Volume 18 Sup 18-1, pp. 335-340 November 1979.
[7] I. Kajino, M. Shimada, Y. Nakada, Y. Hirata and Y. Hagiwara,” Single Chip Color Camera Using Narrow channel CCD Imager with Over Flow Drain”, Technical Report of The Institute of Image Information and Television Engineers, vol. 5, no. 29, pp. 32-3S, (1981).
[8] M. Hamasaki, T. Suzuki, Y. Kagawa, K. Ishikawa, K. Miyata and H. Kambe, “An IT-CCD image with electronically variable shutter speed”, Technical Report of The Institute of Image Information and Television Engineers. vol. 12, no. 12, pp. 31-36, (1988).
[9] N. Teranishi, Y. Ishihara and H. Shiraki, Japanese Patent Application JPA1980-138026 on the PN junction photodiode on the P type substrate which in the patent scope includes the floating surface with surface electric field. Consequently, the surface and the buried charge storage region both become floating. The buried photodiode defined in this patent may have a serious image lag which cannot be Pinned Photodiode.
[10] N. Teranishi, A. Kohono, Y. Ishihara, E. Oda, and K. Arai, “No image lag photodiode structure in in the interline CCD image sensor”, 1982 International Electron Devices Meeting (IEDM1982) Digest of Technical Papers, pp. 324-327, (1982).
[11] B. C. Burkey, W. C. Chang, J. Littlehale, T. H. Lee, T. J. Tredwell, J. P. Lavine, E. A. Trbk, “The Pinned Photodiode for an Interline-transfer CCD Image Sensor”, IEDM1984, Digest of Technical Papers, paper (2.3), (1984).
[12] Yoshiaki Hagiwara, Japanese Patent Application JPA 1975-127647 on N+NP+N Double Junction Type Pinned Photodiode with Back Light Illumination with the CCD/MOS Buffer Memory for Global Shutter Function.
[13] Yoshiaki Hagiwara, Japanese Patent Application JPA 1975-127646 on N+NP+NP-P+ Triple Junction Type Pinned Photodiode with Back Light Illumination with the CCD/MOS Buffer Memory for Global Shutter Function.
[14] Yoshiaki Hagiwara, Shigeyuki Ochi and Takeo Hashimoto, Japanese Patent Application JPA 1977-126885 on Electrical Shutter Clocking Scheme with OFD Punch Thru Action.
[15] Yoshiaki Daimon Hagiwara, PhD Thesis, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena California, USA, June 1975. See also https://202011282002569657330.onamaeweb.jp/AIPS_Library/Caltech_1975_PhD_Thesis_Yoshiaki_Daimon_Hagihara.pdf
[16] Guang Yang, Orly Yadid-Pecht, Chris Wrigley, and Bedabrata Pain,” A Snap-Shot CMOS Active Pixel Imager for Low-Noise, High-speed Imaging”, IEDM1998, Digest of Technical Papers, paper (2.7), (1998).
[17] Yoshiaki Hagiwara, Japanese Patent Application JPA 2020-131313 on the P+PNPP+ Double Junction Pinned Buried Photodiode Type Solar Cell with high short-wave blue light sensitivity and photon-to-electron conversion efficiency.
[18] Yoshiaki Hagiwara, “Home Electronics for Entertainments”, ESSCIRC2001, Vilach, Autria, September 2001.
[19] Yoshiaki Hagiwara, “SOI Cell Processor and Beyond” ESSCIRC2008, Edinburgh Scotland, U. K. September 2008.
[20] Yoshiaki Hagiwara, "Simulation and Device Characterization of the P+PN+P Junction Type Pinned Photodiode and Schottky Barrier Photodiode" IEEE 2020 Electron Devices Technology and Manufacturing Conference (EDTM2019).
[21] Yoshiaki Hagiwara, "Multichip CMOS Image Sensor Structure for Flash Image Acquisition", IEEE 2019 International 3D Systems Integration Conference (3DIC2019), Sendai, Japan.
[22] Taku Umebayashi, Hiroshi Takahashi, Japanese Patent Number 5773379 on the invention of the Cu-to-Cu direct contact technique to achieve the 3D stacked multi-chip LSI system.
[23] Ryoji Suzuki, Keiji Mabuchi, Tomonori Mori, Japanese Patent Number 3759435 on the invention of the fabrication method to achieve back illuminated image sensors.
[24] Peter Nobel, IEEE Transaction of Electron Devices 15-4 (1968) pp. 202-209 on the active photo sensor with the built-in source-follower type in-pixel current amplifier circuit, a very important element for modern CMOS image sensors.
[25] M. H. White, D. R. Lanpe, F. C. Blaha and I. A. Mack, "Characterization of Surface Channel CCD Image Arrays at Low Light Level", IEEE Journal of Solid-State Circuits, SC-9, pp. 1-13 (1974) on the CDS circuit which reduces the clock and CkT noise of the CMOS image sensors drastically.
[26] Ando et al, “Amplified MOS Intelligent Imager “, TV Society Technical Report, Vol. 11 No. 41 pp. 1075-1082 (1987).
[27] E. Ohba el al, “A ¼ inch 330K Square Pixel Progressive Scan CMOS Active Pixel Image Sensor”, ISSCC Dig. Of Tech. Papers, pp. 180-181 (1993).
[28] J. E. D. Fuwitz, et al, “An 800K Pixel Color CMOS Consumer Still Camera”, SPIE Vol. 3019, pp. 115-124, (1997).
Cite This Article
  • APA Style

    Yoshiaki Hagiwara. (2021). Electrostatic and Dynamic Analysis of P+PNP Double Junction Type and P+PNPN Triple Junction Type Pinned Photodiodes. International Journal of Systems Science and Applied Mathematics, 6(2), 55-76. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijssam.20210602.13

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    ACS Style

    Yoshiaki Hagiwara. Electrostatic and Dynamic Analysis of P+PNP Double Junction Type and P+PNPN Triple Junction Type Pinned Photodiodes. Int. J. Syst. Sci. Appl. Math. 2021, 6(2), 55-76. doi: 10.11648/j.ijssam.20210602.13

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    AMA Style

    Yoshiaki Hagiwara. Electrostatic and Dynamic Analysis of P+PNP Double Junction Type and P+PNPN Triple Junction Type Pinned Photodiodes. Int J Syst Sci Appl Math. 2021;6(2):55-76. doi: 10.11648/j.ijssam.20210602.13

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  • @article{10.11648/j.ijssam.20210602.13,
      author = {Yoshiaki Hagiwara},
      title = {Electrostatic and Dynamic Analysis of P+PNP Double Junction Type and P+PNPN Triple Junction Type Pinned Photodiodes},
      journal = {International Journal of Systems Science and Applied Mathematics},
      volume = {6},
      number = {2},
      pages = {55-76},
      doi = {10.11648/j.ijssam.20210602.13},
      url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijssam.20210602.13},
      eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.ijssam.20210602.13},
      abstract = {This paper explains the device structure and operation of image sensors and solar cells. Both are semiconductor devices operating with the same physical principle of detecting photons. A high efficiency of the photon to electron energy conversion is very much desired in both devices. Image sensors now use a very advanced and scaled down CMOS fabrication process technology to achieve high performance features such as the excellent short wave blue light sensitivity for good color reproduction, the low noise and the no image lag picture quality for filmless and mechanical free action cameras. On the other hand, solar cells are still now built with the primitive floating N+P single junction type photodiode to minimize the fabrication process cost but with very low energy conversion efficiency of about 20%. It is explained in details that the depletion region of the PN junction is not the only place where we can achieve photo electron and hole pair separations effectively. The short-wave blue light has only 1000 Å silicon crystal penetration depth. The pinned surface P+P Gaussian doping profile has a very important role to achieve a better photon to energy conversion efficiency, especially for the short-wave blue light. Electrostatic and dynamic behaviors of Pinned Surface P+PNP Double Junction type Dynamic Photo Transistor and Pinned Surface P+PNPN Triple Junction type Dynamic Photo Thyristor are analyzed in details. Both of them are shown to be expected to have much excellent photon-to-electron energy conversion efficiency.},
     year = {2021}
    }
    

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  • TY  - JOUR
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    AU  - Yoshiaki Hagiwara
    Y1  - 2021/06/16
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    DO  - 10.11648/j.ijssam.20210602.13
    T2  - International Journal of Systems Science and Applied Mathematics
    JF  - International Journal of Systems Science and Applied Mathematics
    JO  - International Journal of Systems Science and Applied Mathematics
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    UR  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijssam.20210602.13
    AB  - This paper explains the device structure and operation of image sensors and solar cells. Both are semiconductor devices operating with the same physical principle of detecting photons. A high efficiency of the photon to electron energy conversion is very much desired in both devices. Image sensors now use a very advanced and scaled down CMOS fabrication process technology to achieve high performance features such as the excellent short wave blue light sensitivity for good color reproduction, the low noise and the no image lag picture quality for filmless and mechanical free action cameras. On the other hand, solar cells are still now built with the primitive floating N+P single junction type photodiode to minimize the fabrication process cost but with very low energy conversion efficiency of about 20%. It is explained in details that the depletion region of the PN junction is not the only place where we can achieve photo electron and hole pair separations effectively. The short-wave blue light has only 1000 Å silicon crystal penetration depth. The pinned surface P+P Gaussian doping profile has a very important role to achieve a better photon to energy conversion efficiency, especially for the short-wave blue light. Electrostatic and dynamic behaviors of Pinned Surface P+PNP Double Junction type Dynamic Photo Transistor and Pinned Surface P+PNPN Triple Junction type Dynamic Photo Thyristor are analyzed in details. Both of them are shown to be expected to have much excellent photon-to-electron energy conversion efficiency.
    VL  - 6
    IS  - 2
    ER  - 

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Author Information
  • Artificial Intelligent Partner System (AIPS), AIP LAB, Atsugi City, Japan

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