Silicon-on-Insulator (SOI) technology is widely used in high-performance and low-power semiconductor devices. The SOI wafers have two layers of active silicon (Si), and normally the bottom Si layer is a mere physical structure. The idea of making intelligent pixel detectors by using the bottom Si layer as sensors for X-ray, infrared light, high-energy particles, neutrons, etc. emerged from very early days of the SOI technology. However, there have been several difficult issues with fabricating such detectors and they have not become very popular until recently. This book offers a comprehensive overview of the basic concepts and research issues of SOI radiation image detectors. It introduces basic issues to implement the SOI detector and presents how to solve these issues. It also reveals fundamental techniques, improvement of radiation tolerance, applications, and examples of the detectors. Since the SOI detector has both a thick sensing region and CMOS transistors in a monolithic die, many ideas have emerged to utilize this technology. This book is a good introduction for people who want to develop or use SOI detectors.

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Plasma-based techniques are widely and successfully used across the field of materials processing, advanced nanosynthesis, and nanofabrication. The diversity of currently available processing architectures based on or enhanced by the use of plasmas is vast, and one can easily get lost in the opportunities presented by each of these configurations. This mini-book provides a concise outline of the most important concepts and architectures in plasma-assisted processing of materials, helping the reader navigate through the fundamentals of plasma system selection and optimization. Architectures discussed in this book range from the relatively simple, user-friendly types of plasmas produced using direct current, radio-frequency, microwave, and arc systems, to more sophisticated advanced systems based on incorporating and external substrate architectures, and complex control mechanisms of configured magnetic fields and distributed plasma sources.

High Performance Silicon Imaging: Fundamentals and Applications of CMOS and CCD Sensors, Second Edition, covers the fundamentals of silicon image sensors, addressing existing performance issues and current and emerging solutions. Silicon imaging is a fast growing area of the semiconductor industry. Its use in cell phone cameras is already well established, with emerging applications including web, security, automotive and digital cinema cameras. The book has been revised to reflect the latest state-of-the art developments in the field, including 3D imaging, advances in achieving lower signal noise, and new applications for consumer markets. The fundamentals section has also been expanded to include a chapter on the characterization and testing of CMOS and CCD sensors that is crucial to the success of new applications. This book is an excellent resource for both academics and engineers working in the optics, photonics, semiconductor and electronics industries. - Covers the fundamentals of silicon-based image sensors and technical advances, focusing on performance issues - Looks at image sensors in applications, such as mobile phones, scientific imaging, and TV broadcasting, and in automotive, consumer and biomedical applications - Addresses the theory behind 3D imaging and 3D sensor development, including challenges and opportunities

Revised and expanded for this new edition, Smart CMOS Image Sensors and Applications, Second Edition is the only book available devoted to smart CMOS image sensors and applications. The book describes the fundamentals of CMOS image sensors and optoelectronic device physics, and introduces typical CMOS image sensor structures, such as the active pixel sensor (APS). Also included are the functions and materials of smart CMOS image sensors and present examples of smart imaging. Various applications of smart CMOS image sensors are also discussed. Several appendices supply a range of information on constants, illuminance, MOSFET characteristics, and optical resolution. Expansion of smart materials, smart imaging and applications, including biotechnology and optical wireless communication, are included. Features • Covers the fundamentals and applications including smart materials, smart imaging, and various applications • Includes comprehensive references • Discusses a wide variety of applications of smart CMOS image sensors including biotechnology and optical wireless communication • Revised and expanded to include the state of the art of smart image sensors

These proceedings comprise invited papers from highly experienced researchers in THz technology and security applications. THz detection of explosives represents one of the most appealing technologies to have recently emerged in dealing with terrorist attacks encountered by civil security and military forces throughout the world. Discussed are the most advanced technologies and developments, the various points of operational strength and weaknesses as well as are suggestions and predictions the best technological solutions to overcome current operational limits. The current status of various levels of cooling in THz detectors, sources and associated electronics are also addressed. The goal was to provide a clear view on the current technologies available and the required advances needed in order to achieve more efficient systems. This goal was outlined in part by establishing the baseline of current uncertainty estimations in physics-based modelling and the identification of key areas which require additional research and development.

A comprehensive device model considering both spatial distributions of the terahertz field and the field-effect self-mixing factor has been constructed for the first time in the thesis. The author has found that it is the strongly localized terahertz field induced in a small fraction of the gated electron channel that plays an important role in the high responsivity. An AlGaN/GaN-based high-electron-mobility transistor with a 2-micron-sized gate and integrated dipole antennas has been developed and can offer a noise-equivalent power as low as 40 pW/Hz1/2 at 900 GHz. By further reducing the gate length down to 0.2 micron, a noise-equivalent power of 6 pW/Hz1/2 has been achieved. This thesis provides detailed experimental techniques and device simulation for revealing the self-mixing mechanism including a scanning probe technique for evaluating the effectiveness of terahertz antennas. As such, the thesis could be served as a valuable introduction towards further development of high-sensitivity field-effect terahertz detectors for practical applications.