We demonstrate organic imaging sensor arrays fabricated on flexible plastic foil with the solution processing route for both photodiodes and thin film transistors. We used the photovoltaic P3HT:PCBM blend for fabricating the photodiodes using spin coating and pentacene as semiconductor material for the TFTs. Photodiodes fabricated with P3HT:PCBM absorb in the green part of the visible spectrum which matches with the typical scintillator output wavelength. The arrays consist of 32x32 pixels with variation in pixel resolution of 200μmx200μm, 300μmx300μm and of 1mmx1mm. The accurate reproducibility of shadow images of the objects demonstrates the potential of these arrays for imaging purposes. We also demonstrate that the crosstalk is relatively insignificant despite the fact that the active photodiode forms a continuous layer in the array. Since both photodiodes and TFTs are made of organic material, they are processed at low temperatures below 150°C on foil which means that these imaging sensors can be flexible, light weight and low cost when compared to conventional amorphous silicon based imaging sensors on rigid substrates. In combination with a scintillator on top of the arrays, we show the potential of these arrays for the X-ray imaging applications.
Stabilized amorphous selenium (a-Se) is widely used for Digital Imaging Systems for medical applications
due to its ability to be manufactured over large areas and because of its capability of relatively high charge
collection efficiency. In this work we have shown the behavior of a gated selenium detector. A three-terminal
photodetector is presented where the photoconductive layer is deposited on two coplanar electrodes on a
corning glass substrate. These two coplanar electrodes act as the source and the drain. A third electrode is
deposited on top of the photoconductor layer, which functions as the gate terminal of the device. This work
investigates the feasibility of controlling the charge collection of a selenium-based photo-detector by applying
voltage at the gate terminal. Three different types of structures of the three-terminal device are presented. In
order to investigate the charge collection behavior both the thickness of the bulk and the distance between two
electrodes have been varied. 20, 70 and 200 - micron device thicknesses were chosen while the electrode
spacing was varied from 6 to 10 micron. In order to compare between the different types of devices a fixed
level of electric field at 2.5 V/micron was applied across the bulk of the device. Result shows that the gate
voltage can control the current-voltage transfer characteristics and is dependent on the incident radiation.
One of the two main advantages of the gated photodetectors is that they can be manufactured with a simple
fabrication process. The other advantage is that the gate voltage can control charge collection, which has the
potential for eliminating the thin film transistor (TFT) switches in large-area direct or indirect X-ray imaging.
An indirect digital x-ray detector is designed, fabricated, and tested. The detector integrates a high speed, low noise
CMOS substrate with two types of amorphous semiconductors on the circuit surface. Using a laterally oriented layout
a-Si:H or a-Se can be used to coat the CMOS circuit and provide high speed photoresponse to complement the high speed
circuits possible on CMOS technology. The circuit also aims to reduce the effect of slow carriers by integrated a Frisch
style grid on the photoconductive layer to screen for the slow carriers. Simulations show a uniform photoresponse for
photons absorbed on the top layer and an enhanced response when using a Frisch grid. EQE and noise results are
presented. Finally, possible applications and improvements to the area of indirect x-ray imaging that are capable of easily
being implemented on the substrate are suggested.
Organic semiconductor detectors have always been in active research interest of researchers due to its low fabrication
cost. Vertical organic detectors have been studied in the past but not much of the works have been done on lateral
organic detectors. The lateral design has an advantage over the vertical design that it is easy to fabricate and can be
easily integrated with the backplane TFT imager circuit. Integrating an organic photodetectors with TFT imager can
improve the over all sensitivity of the imager. However the lateral design limits the fill-factor.
Here in our work we propose a new bilayered lateral organic photodetectors with Copper-Phthalocyanine (CUPC) as top
and Perylene- Tetracarboxylic Bis- Benzimidazole (PTCBI) as the bottom layer organic material. The bottom organic
semiconductor layer work as both, charge transport layer and photon absorption layer. The top and bottom layer provides
and heterojunction a potential gradient enough to separate the photo generated excitons in to electrons and holes. The
incident photons are absorbed in the two layers active layers giving an exciton. These excitons see a potential barrier at
the CUPC-PTCBI heterojunction and separated into holes and electrons. The separated electrons are directed by the
external applied electric field and thus give a increase in photocurrent.
Lateral organic photodetectors are simple to design and have low dark current. The photo-response of these photo
detectors is observed approximately three orders higher in magnitude compare able to its dark response. The dual layer
has an advantage of tuning the devices for different absorption wavelengths and were observed more stable comparable
to vertical devices.
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