Patent ID: 11961936
Assignee: nan
Field: Semiconductors (Electrical engineering)
Classification: CPC H  B  G  Y | IPC B  G  H

Claim 0:
1. A photodetector with reduced dark current, comprising:
a photo absorbing layer comprising a p-doped semiconductor exhibiting a valence band energy and a conducting band energy during operation of the photo-detector;
a barrier layer comprising a semiconductor, a first side of the barrier layer adjacent a first side of the photo absorbing layer, the barrier layer exhibiting a conduction band energy level substantially equal to the conduction band energy level of the photo absorbing layer and a valance band energy level exhibiting an energy gap in relation to the valance band of the photo absorbing layer, the energy gap being sufficient to minimize charge carriers tunneling and thermalization; and,
a contact area comprising a doped semiconductor, the contact area adjacent a second side of the barrier layer opposing the first side;
the barrier layer exhibiting a thickness, the thickness and the band gap selected to be sufficient to minimize tunneling of majority carriers between the photo absorbing layer and the contact area and substantially block the flow of thermalized majority carriers between the photo absorbing layer and the contact area.