Fabrication of Antenna-Coupled Metal-Oxide-Metal Infrared Detectors Using Atomic-Layer Deposition (ALD)

This project focuses on antenna-coupled metal-oxide-medal diodes, which are capable of detecting long-wave infrared radiation (LWIR). These devices operate at room temperature without the need for cooling. The fabrication methods of these devices are CMOS compatible, and hence they can be integrated with CMOS circuits. Antennas are able to detect infrared waves by scaling the antenna to a suitable length. Radiation is coupled from an electromagnetic wave to a nonlinear rectifying junction by the antenna. Long-wave infrared detectors which are able to work at room temperature without cooling are of special interest. Humans emit radiation in this frequency range, and the atmospheric attenuation is very low. The detector response time can also be very fast depending on the diode type. Possible applications are tracking, target detection, and navigation in automatic vehicles. Thin-film metal-oxide-metal diodes were fabricated in this research, where high quality uniform aluminum oxide was deposited by atomic layer deposition.