High-Sensitivity CMOS-Integrated Floating Gate-Based UVC Sensors

We report on novel UVC sensors based on the floating gate (FG) discharge principle. The device operation is similar to that of EPROM non-volatile memories UV erasure, but the sensitivity to ultraviolet light is strongly increased by using single polysilicon devices of special design with low FG capacitance and long gate periphery (grilled cells). The devices were integrated without additional masks into a standard CMOS process flow featuring a UV-transparent back end. Low-cost integrated UVC solar blind sensors were optimized for implementation in UVC sterilization systems, where they provided feedback on the radiation dose sufficient for disinfection. Doses of ~10 µJ/cm(2) at 220 nm could be measured in less than a second. The device can be reprogrammed up to 10,000 times and used to control ~10–50 mJ/cm(2) UVC radiation doses typically employed for surface or air disinfection. Demonstrators of integrated solutions comprising UV sources, sensors, logics, and communication means were fabricated. Compared with the existing silicon-based UVC sensing devices, no degradation effects that limit the targeted applications were observed. Other applications of the developed sensors, such as UVC imaging, are also discussed.