Patent · US Expired

Semiconductor device having a transparent switching element

US5744864A · kind A · utility

3,932Cited by
5References
10Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateAug 1, 1996
Grant dateApr 28, 1998
Priority date
Expiry dateAug 1, 2016

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC G)Physics
  • CPC primaryG02F1/1368
  • WIPO fieldOptics
  • WIPO sectorInstruments

Abstract

A semiconductor device includes a transparent switching element (1) with two connection electrodes (2, 3) of a transparent material and an interposed transparent channel region (4) of a semiconductor material provided with a transparent gate electrode (5) of a conductive material, separated from the channel region (4) by a transparent insulating layer (6). The semiconductor material is a degenerate semiconductor material with a basic material having a bandgap (10) between conduction band (11) and valence band (12) of electrons greater than 2.5 eV and a mobility of charge carriers greater than 10 cm.sup.2 /Vs provided with dopant atoms which form a fixed impurity energy level (13) adjacent or in the valence band (12) or conduction band (11) of the basic material. The degenerate semiconductor material is transparent because the absorption of visible light is not possible owing to the great bandgap (10), while also no absorption of visible light takes place through the impurity energy levels (13). The device is capable of comparatively fast switching.

Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.