Design and implementation of novel thin film position-sensitive detectors (TFPSDs) based on photoconductive effect

In this paper, novel, very simple and low-cost thin film position sensitive detectors (TFPSDs) which employ indium tin oxide (ITO)-cadmium sulfide (CdS)-Au structures are presented. Different from the existed PSDs those based on lateral photovoltage effect, the proposed sensor is operated in principle of photoconductive effect. CdS film is chosen as the photosensitive layer since its excellent photoconductive property, low cost and suitable for depositing on different type substrates with large areas. In the present study, CdS films are deposited on silicon substrates by using rf magnetron sputtering at room temperature. After that, the prepared CdS films were annealed at different temperatures for 50 min in N₂ ambient and a rigorous analysis was presented on the surface topography, and photoconductive properties by scanning electron microscopy and semiconductor characteristics analyzer. The test results shows that the film annealed at 400 °C has the best photoconductive property. Moreover, the finite-element method was used to study the relationship between the Aluminium (Al) electrode shape and the linearity of PSD. Three different type PSDs (quadrilateral, rectangular-shaped and pillow-shaped) were designed and simulated. The simulation results indicate that the quadrilateral electrode is suitable for large-area PSDs, whereas the rectangular-shaped and pillow-shaped electrodes can be used to realize small-area PSDs. The measurement results shows that the non-linearities of three type PSDs with dimensions of 10 × 10 mm are respectively 2.106, 3.594, and 3.55 %, which verify the conclusion deduced from the simulation results.