Samsung Surface Plasmon Enhanced Organic Image Sensor

Nature paper "Surface plasmon enhanced Organic color image sensor with Ag nanoparticles coated with silicon oxynitride" by Sung Heo, Jooho lee, Gae Hwang Lee, Chul-Joon Heo, Seong Heon Kim, Dong-Jin Yun, Jong-Bong Park, Kihong Kim, Yongsung Kim, Dongwook Lee, Gyeong-Su Park, Hoon Young Cho, Taeho Shin, Sung Young Yun, Sunghan Kim, Yong Wan Jin, and Kyung-Bae Park from Samsung Advanced Institute of Technology, Dongguk University, Yonsei University, Seoul National University, and Chonbuk National University shows Samsung efforts to improve OPD pixels:

"As organic photodetectors with less than 1 μm pixel size are in demand, a new way of enhancing the sensitivity of the photodetectors is required to compensate for its degradation due to the reduction in pixel size. Here, we used Ag nanoparticles coated with SiOxNy as a light-absorbing layer to realize the scale-down of the pixel size without the loss of sensitivity. The surface plasmon resonance appeared at the interface between Ag nanoparticles and SiOxNy. The plasmon resonance endowed the organic photodetector with boosted photon absorption and external quantum efficiency. As the Ag nanoparticles with SiOxNy are easily deposited on ITO/SiO2, it can be adapted into various organic color image sensors. The plasmon-supported organic photodetector is a promising solution for realizing color image sensors with high resolution below 1 μm."

"In summary,... Although the effective area for receiving the incident photon is expected to decrease with the scaling-down of the pixels, the introduction of the SPR in OCIS counters the problem without losing the spatial resolution. With further systematic research conducted on the pattern and size of Ag NPs, the SPR is likely to be the sole solution for realizing OCISs with high resolution below 1 μm."