Advances in elevated diode technologies for integrated circuits: progress towards monolithic instruments

Integrated circuit manufacturing capabilities have reached the stage where it is technically and economically feasible to create new components that may be monolithically combined with them to create unique devices. One of the most elementary yet reliable of such monolithic components is the elevated diode. These diodes may be used to detect or generate light for parallel photodetection or photogeneration applications, such as imaging, chemical detection, or displays. Because new materials are required for all implementations, various process flows and integration challenges are discussed. In particular, focus on interconnection to the top and bottom of the junction is considered. In addition, since the elevated diode concept gives the designer control of such parameters as junction thickness, semiconductor bandgap, and light emission spectrum, the issues that drive junction design are presented for both the elevated photodiode and elevated OLED. Finally, because of the decoupling of diode size and pixel size, and the presence of new materials, novel pixel circuits are considered to achieve novel or greater pixel-level functionality, and because material behaviour may dictate the method to drive the junction. The new possibilities that these junctions present create a new realm of applications and are initial examples of a new class of devices called monolithic instruments