Amorphous silicon phototransistors

Abstract

An amorphous silicon field-effect phototransistor is fabricated using a processing technology compatible with conventional amorphous silicon-silicon nitride thin-film transistors. The phototransistor has an offset structure between the source and gate electrodes, where light is absorbed to produce a photocurrent. In an electron accumulation mode, the photocurrent is greater than the dark current by three orders of magnitude. In addition, the phototransistor is found to have output characteristics showing good saturation. Typical photoconductive gain of this saturation current is 17.