Highly Scalable SiC UV Imager for Earth & Planetary Science

Commercial silicon carbide (SiC)-based photonic sensors typically use p–i–n photodiode and reversed-biased Avalanche Photodiode (APD) detectors. These state-of-the-art SiC photodioides use the wafer substrate as one node of the device, thereby making monolithic integration of the device with control or analysis circuitry difficult, if not impossible. Ozark IC's new (patent pending) photo detecting devices are inherently suitable for integration in SiC-based low-voltage integrated circuit processes. By virtue of their construction, the photo-generation occurs efficiently and with very high gain. This proposal uses these high-gain photonic devices to construct the world's first monolithic SiC UV pixel sensor array. Also key to this proposal is Ozark IC's extensive library of SiC analog and mixed-signal IP and its expertise in extreme environment IC design.