TRUESENSE Transparent Gate Electrode

The TRUESENSE Transparent Gate Electrode significantly improves the sensitivity available from front-illuminated Full Frame CCD devices by increasing the amount of light entering the pixel for detection.

In a Full Frame CCD design, each pixel is covered by electrodes which allow charge to be read out of the device – as different voltages are applied to the electrodes, charge is “pushed” from pixel to pixel and then into the readout register.  In standard semiconductor manufacturing, these electrodes are manufactured from polysilicon, which absorbs light and reduces the overall sensitivity of the pixel.  The TRUESENSE Transparent Gate Electrode is manufactured using a different material – Indium Tin Oxide (ITO) – which is not only electrically conductive but also optically transparent, allowing light to enter the pixel without obstruction.

With this ITO electrode design, devices that utilize the TRUESENSE Transparent Gate Electrode have significantly higher sensitivity compared to devices that only use polysilicon electrodes:  Sensitivity at 400 nm is improved by a factor of 10, and increased by 50% across the majority of the visible spectrum.