Device Fabrication and Testing

1
RIDL (Rochester Imaging Detector Labs) is
currently designing and fabricating a focal plane
array that would be used on a satellite to
capture images in space as part of the Joint Dark
Energy Mission, a portion of the Beyond Einstein
initiative by NASA. The device is made up of a
detector (collects light and generates a current)
and a readout circuit (translates the detectors
signals into image information) and works like a
CCD camera. When a photon is incident on the
detector, it excites an electron, which is then
freed from the silicon crystal lattice and
carried to the other side of the device (where
the current is collected in localized areas
called pixels) by an electric field. It uses this
photovoltaic current as a signal for the presence
of light in the field of study, which is
converted to an image by assembling these pixels
in the correct order. This signal is then read by
a readout integrated circuit (ROIC) and sent to a
processor that converts the digital information
to an image. The ROIC has been designed by a
team headed by Dr. Zeljko Ignjatovic and the
University of Rochester and is being fabricated
by an outside facility. The detector design is
currently under fabrication here at RIT in the
SMFL (Semiconductor and Microsystems Fabrication
Laboratory), a class-100 clean room located in
building 17, the Microelectronic Engineering
department.
Frontside (Bonds to Multiplexer)
Bonds to ROIC
Device Fabrication and Testing
Cross-Sectional View
Backside (Collects Radiation)
Frontside (Bonds to Multiplexer)
Backside (Collects Radiation)
Top-Down Views
Pattern Repeats
(The lines visible here are actually
passivated.)
Design Team Director Dr. Don Figer, Dr. Jingjing
Zhang, Dr. Zoran Ninkov Simulations Tarun
Parmar, Dr. Jingjing Zhang, Kimberly
Manser Process Design and Fabrication Kimberly
Manser, Dr. Jingjing Zhang