Design and characterization of fully integrated PhotoFETS for ionizing particle sensors using a CMOS submicron technology

New applications for imaging are currently emerging in industrial and research systems: measurement of rare physical events, particle detection for high energy physics, electronic microscopy, etc. Imaging sensors are generally developed by using CCDs, CMOS technology or hybrid pixels. The originality of the CMOS Sensors or MAPS (Monolithic Active Pixel Sensors) presented in this paper is the integration of PhotoFETs into a pixel cell. The PhotoFET is a particle sensing element which implements (advantageously) an amplifying structure. Two different PhotoFETs structures realized in the AMS 0.35 μm technology will be presented. A theoretical study will explain the PhotoFETs architectures and its advantages compared to classical M.A.P.S ionizing particle detectors. The main characteristics of PhotoFETs structures measured in current mode are described in this paper.