I-Corps: Low-Cost Organic Light-Emitting Diode (OLED)-Based Infrared Sensor

这个i-Corps项目更广泛的影响/商业潜力是提供一种创新的超低成本但高性能的基于有机发光二极管(OLED)的红外传感器技术。在人和运动、温度测量以及安全和监控应用的传感应用的推动下，红外探测器市场预计将显著增长。目前的红外传感器技术由于成本高和像素分辨率有限(约100万像素)而受到限制。基于OLED的红外传感器技术有可能实现体积小、重量轻、高分辨率和超低成本的传感器。这些传感器的潜在集成领域包括无人机、智能手机、智能眼镜和汽车应用。这个i-Corps项目基于有机发光二极管(OLED)红外传感器技术的开发。传统的红外传感器技术价格昂贵，因为红外敏感半导体需要外延生长工艺，红外探测器像素阵列必须通过复杂的芯片键合工艺与硅基读出集成电路(ROIC)电连接。所提出的基于OLED的红外传感器结构不需要这些步骤。传感器是由红外到可见光上转换的OLED光学(而不是电子)耦合在廉价的商用现成可视互补金属氧化物半导体图像传感器上制造的。这些基于OLED的红外传感器可以实现比传统传感器更高的分辨率和更低的成本。这一奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this I-Corps project is to provide an innovative ultra low-cost but high-performance organic light-emitting diode (OLED)-based infrared sensor technology. The infrared detector market is expected to grow significantly, driven by sensing applications for people and motion, temperature measurement, and security and surveillance applications. Current infrared sensor technology is limited due to high costs and limited pixel resolution of about 1 million pixels. The OLED-based infrared sensor technology can potentially achieve sensors with small and lightweight form factors with high-resolution and ultra low-cost. Potential areas of integration for these sensors can include drones, smartphones, smart glasses, and automobile applications.This I-Corps project is based on the development of an organic light-emitting diode (OLED) based infrared sensor technology. Traditional infrared sensor technologies are expensive because infrared-sensitive semiconductors require an epitaxial growth process and the infrared photodetector pixel arrays must be electrically connected to silicon-based readout integrated circuits (ROIC) by a complicated chip bonding processes. The proposed OLED-based infrared sensor structure does not require these steps. The sensors are fabricated with an infrared-to-visible up-conversion OLED coupled optically (not electronically) on an inexpensive Commercial-Off-The-Shelf visible complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor image sensor. These OLED-based infrared sensors can achieve both higher resolution and significantly lower cost than traditional sensors.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.