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Imaging & Machine Vision Europe publishes an article about ST QD sensor presentation at IEDM 2021:
"The company demonstrated a 1.62µm pixel pitch global shutter SWIR sensor, with a quantum efficiency of 60 per cent and a shutter efficiency of 99.98 per cent at 1,400nm.
The devices were manufactured on 300mm wafers, so suitable for high-volume production at a relatively low cost.
Speaking to Imaging and Machine Vision Europe, Jonathan Steckel, director of advanced technology intelligence in imaging at ST Microelectronics, and lead author of the paper, said that the cost of the sensor could be down in the single-dollar region, similar to what would be paid for a silicon imager.
The ST work though shows commitment to high-volume production, and could open up SWIR imaging for consumer electronic devices and other larger volume applications.
‘The potential of the technology is that you can essentially do SWIR imaging at silicon cost,’ Steckel said.
The disadvantage of CQD technology for shortwave infrared is that the quantum efficiency is lower than InGaAs sensors. Steckel said that ST’s quantum dot SWIR image sensor is not a huge leap in performance compared to CQD sensors from other suppliers, but that ST is going to make it available at a significant scale and with the reliability that consumer electronic customers demand.
In academia, Professor Edward Sargent at the University of Toronto has reported 80 per cent quantum efficiency of a CQD photodetector at 1,550nm.
‘In industry, in the next couple of years, we’ll probably also be able to develop our technology to hit higher quantum efficiencies, upwards of 70-80 per cent,’ Steckel said. ‘Then it would create more of a value-add, and more of a gap between what silicon can do versus what CQD can do in the NIR, and also close the gap between what InGaAs can do versus CQD technology in the SWIR.’
IMVE also publishes Paweł Malinowski, program manager at Imec, response to ST IEDM presentation:
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