Publications

Germanium exhibits high sensitivity to short-wave infrared (SWIR) and X-ray radiation, making it an interesting candidate for imaging applications in these bands. Recent advances in germanium processing allow for high-quality charge-coupled devices (CCDs) to be realized in this material. In this article, we discuss our evaluation of germanium as an absorber material for CCDs via fabrication and analysis of discrete devices such as diodes, metal-insulator-semiconductor capacitors, and buried-channel metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistors (MOSFETs). We then describe fabrication of our first imaging device on germanium, a 32 x 1 x 8.1 um linear shift register. Based on this work, we find that germanium is a promising material for CCDs imaging in the SWIR and X-ray bands.