Vertical CdTe:PVP/p-Si-Based Temperature Sensor by Using Aluminum Anode Schottky Contact

Abstract

The vertical Schottky barrier diode (SBD)-based temperature sensors with the drive modes are a significant issue with more advantageous than the on-chip sensor. The sensitivity (S) and the current conduction mechanisms (CCMs) of the vertical cadmium telluride (CdTe):polyvinyl pyrolidone (PVP)/ p-Si SBD were studied experimentally over the range of 80-340 K and compared with that of the lateral and vertical sensors. It is shown that the low and moderated voltages of the CdTe:PVP/ p-Si corresponding two linear regions of the current-voltage (I-V) outputs are around 0.1-0.3 and 0.4-0.65 V, respectively. The variation of Schottky barrier height (BH; ΦBo) and ideality factor (n) with temperature was obtained according to two linear regions. Energy dispersion of the interface traps (Nss) with changing temperature is additionally analyzed quantitatively. It is concluded that the thermionic-emission (TE) theory with double-Gaussian distribution (GD) is the dominant mechanism resulting the I-V characteristics of the vertical CdTe:PVP/ p-Si SBD in this study. Moreover, in the constant current, the S values at the drive current of 10, 20, and 50μA were resulting in a range of -1.6 to -1.8 mV/K.