Platinum silicide

Platinum silicide (PtSi) is a semiconductor material used in infrared detectors. It is used in detectors for infrared astronomy.

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Platinum silicide is capable of operating at 1-5 µm wavelength range. It has a good sensitivity (up to 0.05 °C) and high stability. Its manufacturing process is relatively simple, with good yields, resulting in reasonable cost.

Platinum silicide is made by ion implantation of platinum into silicon surface, forming a Schottky diode structure. Due to silicon-based technology, large detector devices with low noise and good quality are available, and the manufacturing is relatively simple. However their quantum efficiency is abysmally low (typically under 1%), and therefore platinum silicide devices are currently used only rarely, being displaced by better materials.

Platinum silicide devices offer high uniformity of the imaging arrays, avoiding the need of on-line image corrections, and simplifying the device construction. They are in use in some thermal imaging applications, particularly for measurement, as PtSi is very stable and has low drift of parameters with time. The low cost and high stability makes it a suitable material for imaging devices for preventive maintenance and scientific IR imaging.

A well-formed platinum silicide layer is opaque to infrared light, and the barrier height of the resulting Schottky diodes should be 0.84 ± 0.3 V.

HgCdTe and indium antimonide are materials with similar uses.