X-FAB is offering sensitive UV photo diodes made using silicon foundry

Semiconductor foundry X-FAB expanded its 0.18 and 0.35 micrometer device portfolio with new highly sensitive UV (ultraviolet) photo diodes that are the first of their kind developed by a silicon foundry. These are made using X-FAB’s modular XH018 and XH035 CMOS process technologies provide highest quantum efficiency available from a silicon foundry, claims X-FAB. Because of the lower cost, these UV diodes opens door to lot of new applications in wearable, medical and industrial areas. The products such as smart watches and smart phones can use UV sensors for multiple applications. X-FAB suggests these UV photosensor also for water purification and disinfection systems and flame detection and other applications, and in the medical sector for light therapies or the detection of blood sugar in diabetes monitoring. In X-FAB’s 0.35 micrometer foundry process, their quantum efficiency (measurement of a device's electrical sensitivity to light) especially in the UV-A and UV-B wavelength range is more than 70 percent, and in X-FAB’s 0.18 micrometer technology it is more than 50 percent. Such levels previously have been reported only for photo diodes manufactured with special processes that use back-side illumination, or for discrete UV photo diodes, claims X-FAB. These UV photo diodes offered by X-FAB also perform well in the visible and infra-red light spectrum, achieving...