US 7,842,924 B2Granted

Infrared detector, infrared detecting apparatus, and method of manufacturing infrared detector

AssigneesMitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd., National University Corporation Nagoya University

InventorsMasahiro Kato, Kazunori Masukawa, Yo Watanabe, Masahito Yamaguchi, Koichi Tani

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Abstract

An infrared detector comprises: a reflection portion transmitting far- and middle-infrared rays and reflecting near-infrared and visible rays; a photo-current generating portion having a quantum well structure in which electrons are excited by the far- and middle-infrared rays having passed through the reflection portion so as to generate photo-current; a light emitting portion having a quantum well structure into which electrons of the photo-current generated by the photo-current generating portion are injected and the electrons thus injected thereinto are recombined with holes, thus emitting near-infrared and visible rays; and a photo-detecting portion detecting the near-infrared and visible rays emitted from the light emitting portion, and detecting the near-infrared and visible rays emitted from the light emitting portion and reflected by the reflection portion. The reflection portion, the photo-current generating portion, and the light emitting portion are made of group III-V compound semiconductors layered on a semiconductor substrate.

Claims18

Dependent claims

An infrared detector comprising:

a reflection portion which transmits rays in the far-infrared range and in the middle-infrared range and which reflects rays in the near-infrared range and in the visible range;
a photo-current generating portion having a quantum well structure in which electrons are excited by the rays in the far-infrared range and in the middle-infrared range having passed through the reflection portion and in which the electrons thus excited generate photo-current;
a light emitting portion having a quantum well structure into which electrons of the photo-current generated by the photo-current generating portion are injected and in which the electrons thus injected thereinto are recombined with holes so as to emit rays in the near-infrared range and in the visible range;
and
a photo-detecting portion which detects the rays in the near-infrared range and in the visible range emitted from the light emitting portion and which detects the rays in the near-infrared range and in the visible range emitted from the light emitting portion and reflected by the reflection portion, wherein
at least the reflection portion, the photo-current generating portion, and the light emitting portion are made of group III-V compound semiconductors that are layered on top of a substrate, and
incident rays in the far-infrared range and in the middle-infrared range are detected by the detection, performed by the photo-detecting portion, of the rays in the near-infrared range and in the visible range emitted from the light emitting portion.

4 more elements

A method of manufacturing an infrared detector comprising the steps of:

forming a layer of a light emitting portion on top of a substrate, the light emitting portion having a quantum well structure in which electrons and holes are recombined together so that rays in the near-infrared range and in the visible range are emitted;
forming a layer of a photo-current generating portion on top of the light emitting portion, the photo-current generating portion having a quantum well structure in which electrons are excited by rays in the far-infrared range and in the middle-infrared range, and photo-current that is to be injected into the light emitting portion is generated by the excited electrons;
forming a layer of a reflection portion on top of the photo-current generating portion so as to form a first element, the reflection portion transmitting rays in the far-infrared range and in the middle-infrared range incident into the photo-current generating portion, and reflecting rays in the near-infrared range and in the visible range emitted from the light emitting portion towards a photo-detecting portion;
forming an independent second element with the photo-detecting portion which detects the rays in near-infrared range and in the visible range emitted from the light emitting portion and which detects the rays in the near-infrared range and in the visible range emitted from the light emitting portion and reflected by the reflection portion;
and
bonding the first element and the second element to form a single united body, wherein
at least the reflection portion, the photo-current generating portion, the light emitting portion are made of group III-V compound semiconductors by the same crystal-growth method, and
thereby an infrared detector that detects the incident rays in the far-infrared range and in the middle-infrared range by making the photo-detecting portion detect the rays in the near-infrared range and in the visible range emitted from the light emitting portion is manufactured.

5 more elements

A method of manufacturing an infrared detector comprising the steps of:

forming a layer of a photo-detecting portion to detect rays in the near-infrared range and in the visible range on top of a substrate made of a group III-V compound semiconductor;
forming a layer of a light emitting portion on top of the photo-detecting portion, the light emitting portion having a quantum well structure in which electrons and holes are recombined together so that rays in the near-infrared range and in the visible range to be detected by the photo-detecting portion are emitted;
forming a layer of a photo-current generating portion on top of the light emitting portion, the photo-current generating portion having a quantum well structure in which electrons are excited by rays in the far-infrared range and in the middle-infrared range, and photo-current that is to be injected into the light emitting portion is generated by the excited electrons;
forming a layer of a reflection portion on top of the photo-current generating portion, the reflection portion transmitting rays in the far-infrared range and in the middle-infrared range incident into the photo-current generating portion, and reflecting rays in the near-infrared range and in the visible range that are emitted from the light emitting portion towards the photo-detecting portion, wherein
all of the reflection portion, the photo-current generating portion, the light emitting portion, and the photo-detecting portion are made of group III-V compound semiconductors by the same crystal-growth method so as to form a single united body, and
thereby an infrared detector that detects the incident rays in the far-infrared range and in the middle-infrared range by making the photo-detecting portion detect the rays in the near-infrared range and in the visible range emitted from the light emitting portion is manufactured.

3 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.