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US 8,946,839 B1Granted
Reduced volume infrared detector
AssigneeHRL Laboratories, LLC
InventorsDaniel Yap, Rajesh D. Rajavel, Sarabjit Mehta, James H. Schaffner
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Abstract
An absorber is disclosed. The disclosed absorber contains a base layer, and a plurality of pillars disposed above the base layer and composed of material configured to absorb an incident light and generate minority electrical carriers and majority electrical carrier, wherein the height of the pillars is predetermined to provide a common pyramidal outline shared by the pillars in the plurality of pillars.
Claims31
An absorber of incident light comprising:
- a base layer;
- and
- a plurality of pillars disposed above the base layer and composed of material configured to absorb an incident light and generate minority electrical carriers and majority electrical carrier,
- wherein the plurality of pillars collectively form an outline of a pyramid.
1 more element
A detector comprising:
- an extractor layer;
- an absorber layer disposed above the extractor layer;
- a first electrical contact;
- and
- a second electrical contact,
- wherein the absorber layer is configured to absorb photons of incident light and generate minority electrical carriers and majority electrical carriers;
- wherein the absorber layer comprises a first plurality of pillars that collectively form an outline of a first pyramid;
- wherein the extractor layer is electrically connected with the absorber layer and with the first electrical contact for extracting the minority electrical carriers, and the absorber layer is electrically connected with the extractor layer and with the second electrical contact to extract the majority electrical carriers.
5 more elements
A method of detecting incident light, the method comprising:
- providing an absorber layer comprising a plurality of pillars that collectively form an outline of a pyramid,
- wherein the absorber layer is configured to reduce reflection of an incident light and generate minority electrical carriers and majority electrical carriers;
- and
- providing an extractor layer for extracting the minority electrical carriers.
1 more element
An absorber of incident light comprising:
- a base layer;
- and
- one or more pyramid-shaped regions disposed above the base layer, wherein the one or more pyramid-shaped regions define one or more cavities above the base layer, wherein the one or more pyramid-shaped regions comprise an absorbing material and non-absorbing fill-in material, wherein the absorbing material is configured to absorb an incident light and generate minority electrical carriers and majority electrical carriers, wherein the absorbing material comprises one or more pillars, and wherein the non-absorbing fill-in material is disposed alongside and between adjacent ones of the one or more pillars.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.