(Invited) Miniature Image Sensor Based on Van Der Waals Semiconductors

Abstract

Miniature electronics are highly demanded by implantable and prosthetic devices, minimally invasive techniques, medical microrobotics, and many emerging applications. In line with this trend, power sources, communication transceivers, and actuators have been miniaturized successively. In contrast, the downscaling of image sensors is significantly delayed, due to the bottleneck of current device architectures. In this talk, we report our recent progress in addressing this challenge, leveraging van der Waals semiconductors (vdW-Ss). Our vdW-S image sensor replaces the widely used lateral Bayer configuration with a vertical color sensing structure, as such, only occupies a quarter of the original space. By properly arranging the position of red, green, and blue sensing channels in this vertical structure, we can also deliver an image sensor with the capability of chromatic aberration correction, which is rarely achieved by its counterparts. The correction of aberration, in turn, facilitates the lens system simplification and accelerates the downscaling of cameras. In order to implement the genuine integration of our image sensor architecture, a vdW-Ss doping level control strategy is also being developed and will be discussed in this talk.