4H-SiC Schottky Photodiode Based Demonstrator Board for UV-Index Monitoring

Abstract

There is significant scientific evidence demonstrating that excessive exposure to ultraviolet (UV) radiation in sunlight and from artificial sources may cause acute and chronic adverse health effects to skin and eye. The Global Solar UV Index (UVI) describes the level of solar UV radiation at the Earth's surface. The higher the index value, the greater the potential for damage to the skin and eye, and the less time it takes for harm to occur. In this letter, we report on a demonstrator board suitably designed for UVI monitoring using visible blind high signal-to-noise ratio 4H-SiC Schottky photodiodes as UV light detectors.Index Terms-4H-SiC Schottky photodiode, demonstrator board, healthcare, ultraviolet light detectors, ultraviolet index (UVI) monitoring.

IoT System for Ultraviolet Ray Index Monitoring

“…Lonnqvist et al [19] and Park et al [20] feature mobile devices for outdoor UV measurement using Arduino module, with different sensor models, but with the same goal, which was to make people aware of the growing risk of getting skin cancer. Mazzillo et al [21] feature a plate for UV measurement using silicon carbide (4H-SiC) Schottky photodiodes as UV light sensors. This plate measures and signals the UV index under different lighting and climate conditions, thus enabling monitoring of ultraviolet rays for prevention of skin diseases.…”

Impact of the epilayer doping on the performance of thin metal film Ni2Si/4H-SiC Schottky photodiodes

“…The Schottky UV photodiodes were fabricated at the STMicroelectronics-Catania clean room facilities using 4" diameter 4H-SiC epitaxial wafers produced by E.T.C. 1 by using a growth process expressly developed for this technology. Epitaxial wafers with two different values of the n − surface epilayer doping (8 × 10 13 cm −3 and 1.7 × 10 14 cm −3 , both 6 µm thick) were grown onto an n-type heavily doped substrate (1 × 10 19 cm −3 , 350 µm thickness) using the LPE PE106 single wafer epitaxy reactor.…”

“…Ultraviolet (UV) photon detection has a wide spectrum of applications, including environmental light monitoring [1], flame and electric discharge detection [2], chemical sensing [3], astronomical imaging [4] and covert communication [5], all requiring reliable and highly sensitive detection systems.…”

“…Prolonged human exposure to UV-A and UV-B solar radiation may in fact result in sunburn and in worst cases also in acute and chronic health effects on the skin, eye, and immune system. The Global Solar UV Index (UVI) describes the level of solar UV radiation at the Earth's surface [1]. In particular, 4H-SiC photodiodes have been recently also proposed for this application because of their high quantum efficiency, excellent visible blindness, very low dark current and remarkable progress in epitaxial growth technologies [6].…”

Integrated 64 pixel UV image sensor and readout in a silicon carbide CMOS technology

“…Extensive research effort was made on silicon carbide photodetectors, as they make excellent visual-blind UV detectors. Over the years the technology has come a long way, leading for example to a UV-index monitoring demonstrator board 14 and UV imager 15 . Reliability studies on the aging effects show promising results, revealing little to no change in the device performance 16 – 18 .…”