Sep 19 2014
University of Arkansas engineers have developed as a new semiconductor material that holds promise for cost-effective photodetectors used in the production of infrared cameras for smartphones. This material is comprised of a silicon substrate on which layers of germanium tin are deposited.
Fisher Yu, University of Arkansas
The National Science Foundation, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, the Army, and the Air Force have provided funding for this study, which has been published in the international scientific journal, Optics Express.
An associate professor of electrical engineering at the University of Arkansas, Fisher Yu, states that the performance of germanium tin photodetectors shows that they would be very useful in the future for applications ranging from efficient solar cells to lasers. Furthermore, these samples can be grown in reactors available in the market, which makes them available for commercial applications.
A postdoctoral fellow in Electrical Engineering, Wei Du; a microelectronics-photonics doctoral student, Benjamin Conley; and a professor of electrical engineering, Hameed Naseem, had collaborated with Fisher Yu in this project to develop devices by deposition of thin germanium tin films on silicon, while avoiding any damage to integrated circuits.
The device was tested at temperatures in the range of 77K to 300K, with material composition in various percentages of 0.9, 3.2 and 7.0. The team wanted to check the performance of the device for applications that required night vision. This development will provide images that are comparable in quality to that of satellite and military equipment.
Apart from this team, some other groups are also working on germanium tin for producing semiconductor material for applications in electronics and computer chips.
Arktonics, an Arkansas-based spin-off company, has been started by the group for marketing the developed devices and materials. These researchers are also partnering with ASM International to build microelectronics devices.