Visible-band cameras using silicon imagers
provide excellent video under daylight
conditions, but become blind at night. The
night sky provides illumination from 1-2 μm
which cannot be detected with a silicon sensor.
Adding short-wave infrared detectors to a
CMOS imager would enable a camera which
can be used day or night.
A germanium-enhanced CMOS imager
(TriWave®) has been developed with
broadband sensitivity from 0.4 μm to 1.6 μm.
A 744 x 576 format imager with 10 μm pixel
pitch provides a large field of view without
incurring a size and weight penalty in the
optics. The small pixel size is achieved by
integrating a germanium photodetector into a
mainstream CMOS process. A sensitive
analog signal chain provides a noise floor of 5
electrons. The imagers are hermetically
packaged with a thermo-electric cooler in a
windowed metal package 5 cm3 in volume. A
compact (<650 cm3) camera core has been
designed around the imager. Camera
functions implemented include correlated
double sampling, dark frame subtraction and
non-uniformity corrections.
In field tests, videos recorded with different
filters in daylight show useful fog and haze
penetration over long distances. Under clear
moonless conditions, short-wave infrared
(SWIR) images recorded with TriWave make
visible individuals that cannot be seen in
videos recorded simultaneously using an
EMCCD. Band-filtered videos confirm that
the night-sky illumination is dominated by
wavelengths above 1200 nm.
NoblePeak Vision has developed monolithic visible to short-wave infrared (SWIR) imaging
arrays. An innovative growth technique is used to integrate germanium islands with the silicon
transistors and metal layers of a CMOS process. Imaging arrays of 128x128 pixels at a 10 μm
pitch were designed and fabricated, with the silicon photodiodes of a conventional CMOS
imager replaced by germanium photodiodes. Broadband response from 400 nm to 1650 nm has
been measured. Imaging die have been packaged with a Peltier cooler and built into a camera
evaluation kit.
Raymond Cirelli, J. Bude, William Mansfield, G. Timp, Fred Klemens, Pat Watson, Gary Weber, James Sweeney, Francis Houlihan, Allen Gabor, Fred Baumann, M. Buonanno, G. Forsyth, D. Barr, T. Lee, C. Rafferty, Richard Hutton, Allen Timko, J. Hergenrother, Elsa Reichmanis, Lloyd Harriott, S. Hillenius, Omkaram Nalamasu
We describe the fabrication of the world's smallest fully functional conventional non-volatile memory device using 193 nm lithography for all levels. The cell area of the smallest devices fabricated was 0.0896 micrometers 2. The critical level of the device, to define the channel length, was exposed with an alternating aperture phase shift mask. Floating gate dimensions ranged from 0.080 to 0.14 micrometers . Subsequent lithography, to define the control gate utilized a binary mask with gate dimensions down to 0.16 micrometers . A multi-layer ARC was used to reduce substrate reflections and maintain linewidth control over topography. All levels were exposed with a new single layer chemically amplified resist developed for 193 nm lithography. We will present results for line width control, etch bias, implementation of resolution enhancement techniques as well as issues with process integration.
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