Effect of intrinsic layer thickness on the performances of amorphous silicon P-I-N junction

Hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) p-type/intrinsic/n-type junctions are widely used in thin film-based microelectronics. Recently, they have been investigated as photodiodes and temperature sensors integrated on a single glass substrate to develop lab-on-chip systems featuring compactness and lightweight. In such applications, a-Si:H photodiodes can detect chemiluminescence, bioluminescence or fluorescence. Depending on the wavelength to be revealed, the spectral response of the photosensor could be properly tuned. In the present work, we report on the fabrication and optoelectronic characterization of a-Si:H p-i-n junctions to study the effect of the intrinsic layer thickness on quantum efficiency and temperature sensitivity of the sensors. Results show that the photo-diode spectral response is highly affected by the i-layer thickness, while the temperature sensor performances do not show any significant dependence on it.