Patent · US Expired

Integrated CMOS spectrometers

US5965873A · kind A · utility

12Cited by
4References
14Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateMay 20, 1998
Grant dateOct 12, 1999
Priority date
Expiry dateMay 20, 2018

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC H)Electricity
  • CPC primaryH10F77/337
  • WIPO fieldMeasurement
  • WIPO sectorInstruments

Abstract

A spectrometer, comprises: a semiconductor having a silicon substrate, the substrate having integrally formed thereon a plurality of layers forming photo diodes, each of the photo diodes having an independent spectral response to an input spectra within a spectral range of the semiconductor and each of the photo diodes formed only from at least one of the plurality of layers of the semiconductor above the substrate; and, a signal processing circuit for modifying signals from the photo diodes with respective weights, the weighted signals being representative of a specific spectral response. The photo diodes have different junction depths and different polycrystalline silicon and oxide coverings. The signal processing circuit applies the respective weights and sums the weighted signals. In a corresponding method, a spectrometer is manufactured by manipulating only the standard masks, materials and fabrication steps of standard semiconductor processing, and integrating the spectrometer with a signal processing circuit.

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