ESPROS Photonic Technology Approach

We combine established technological capabilities to realize intelligent opto-sensors with outstanding performance parameters

So far, imaging detector fabrication was limited by various boundary conditions. On one hand, CCD technology provides very good charge handling capability, but high-density CMOS data processing is rarely available. On the other hand, especially for detection in the NIR (near infrared), PIN photodiodes are well established due to their superior absorption characteristics and capability of high-speed response.  But they are discrete devices. Today, the vast majority of imagers are built using slightly modified CMOS processes, resulting in mediocre optical performance parameters, e.g. quantum efficiency (QE).
Our technology breaks with this limitation in optical performance in the NIR range which makes it highly suitable for a broad array of optical sensor systems.

The key of epc's outstanding optical detector performance is a dedicated wafer processing technology – our very own ESPROS Photonic CMOS^© process. The baseline of this process is an industry standard, well established 150nm CMOS process. This process is adapted to incorporate the necessary new devices for optical detectors, while keeping the impact on the available devices as low as possible. Available IP of the baseline process can easily be reused in the ESPROS Photonic CMOS^© environment.