Full paperSelf-powered silicon PIN photoelectric detection system based on triboelectric nanogenerator
Graphical abstract
Introduction
The Internet of things (IoT) is considered as a significant development and reform opportunity following computer science [[1], [2], [3], [4]]. To realize the communication between physical objects on earth, cost-effective miniaturized sensors with low power consumption are essential for the IoT [[5], [6], [7], [8]]. Photoelectric detectors are essential and widely applied in many areas. There are many kinds of photodetectors, while silicon-based photodiodes occupy a significant position in photoelectric detection applications due to its mature processing technology. The silicon PIN detector is frequently used for photoelectric detection, radiation detection, satellite communication, aerospace, medical imaging, and nuclear engineering applications [[9], [10], [11], [12]]. However, most existing photodetectors are designed based on active electronic devices, and external power supplies (such as chemical batteries) are required to provide energy for signal acquisition and signal processing. This configuration not only increases the volume of the sensor system, but also affects the sensor's endurance [[13], [14], [15]]. For the practical application of the IoT, considering that a large number of sensors are required, the development of IoT is greatly hindered by the limited life of traditional energy supply methods, such as chemical batteries, which have high cost, and are inconvenient to replace and dispose. Therefore, it is extremely urgent to develop a self-powered photoelectric detection system.
Wang proposed the first piezoelectric nanogenerator based on zinc oxide (ZnO) nanowires in 2006 [16] and invented triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG) in 2012 [17]. Since then, self-powered systems containing TENGs and various detectors have been extensively investigated [[18], [19], [20], [21], [22], [23], [24]]. For instance, Chen reported a self-powered smart microsystem, which utilized TENG to power RFID tags [18]. Zhang employed nanogenerator to directly drive biomedical microsystem [19]. Guo designed a self-powered triboelectric auditory sensor (TAS) for constructing an electronic auditory system [24]. Till now, TENGs have been successfully demonstrated as a new power source for harvesting low frequency mechanical energy [[25], [26], [27], [28]] and self-powered sensors for generating electrical signals in response to external environmental stimuli (such as vibration [29,30], biomechanical movement [31,32], wind force [33] and water flow [[34], [35], [36]]). Particularly, Zheng proposed the first self-powered UV detector combined with the TENG in 2014 [37]. From then on, attempts have been made to realize the self-powered photodetection [[38], [39], [40]]. Compared with conventional powering and sensing application (optical grating modulation [41], transmission of mechanical agitation signals [42], and so on [[43], [44], [45], [46]]), the newly developed technology realizes the combination of photodetection and TENG and has wide market value. For example, the transistor photodetector based on the TENG has been proposed as light intensity sensor [47]. However, most similar researches are based on expensive and complex processes [[48], [49], [50]], which greatly limit the application of the TENG/photodetector detection system in the field of the IoT.
This work proposes a self-powered photoelectric detection system based on the impedance matching between the paper-based TENG [51] and silicon PIN photodetectors. Using advanced and mature silicon integrated micro/nano processing technology, we fabricated a high-performance silicon PIN photodetector that is sensitive to light intensity. The silicon photodetector possesses the outstanding advantages of simple structure and mature fabrication techniques, which enables large scale manufacturing and greatly reduces the production cost [[52], [53], [54]]. Moreover, the silicon PIN photodetector can be fabricated with a large sensitive region and high detection efficiency. On the other hand, the photoelectric detection system, combined with the paper-based TENG, is self-powered and does not require an external power supply. The use of the recyclable and environmentally friendly paper-based TENG further reduces the production costs and pollution, and thus effectively promotes the practical application of a photoelectric detection system in the IoT.
Section snippets
Preparation of silicon PIN photodetector
The PIN photodetector includes an intrinsic semiconductor layer, a heavily doped P+ region and N+ region. The junction capacitance of the depletion layer per unit area [55] is defined as follows:
In Equation (1), is the dielectric constant of silicon, and is the thickness of the depletion layer. Compared with the p-n junction, the distance between the electrodes of the p-n junction capacitance increases, owing to the injection of the intrinsic region. Obviously, increases
Results and discussion
This study proposes a photoelectric detection system using a silicon PIN detector based on the impedance effect. The schematic diagram of the circuit is shown in Fig. 4(b). In this circuit, the TENG output voltage after rectification can provide a reverse high voltage for the silicon PIN photodetector, which keeps the detector in a state of depletion. At this time, owing to the internal photoelectric effect [67], the resistance of the photodetector was reduced as the light intensity increased.
Conclusion
This paper proposes a self-powered photoelectric detection system based on the impedance matching effect of the paper-based TENG and ultra-thin dead layer silicon PIN photodetector. The paper-based TENG was used as the power supply. The silicon PIN photodetector was fabricated by silicon integrated processing for photo-detection. The proposed system has outstanding advantages of sensitive photoelectric detection, low-cost, and does not require an external power supply. Additionally, it is
Declaration of competing interest
The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.
Acknowledgments
This research was supported by Zhejiang Provincial Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. LY20F040004), the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (Grant No. SWU019040) and National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 61804132).
Jingxi Wang received his B.S. degree from Fuzhou University in 2018. He is presently pursuing his master's degree at the National Key Laboratory of Nano/Micro Fabrication Technology, Peking University, Beijing, China. His research interests include silicon PIN detector, triboelectric nanogenerators and self-powered system.
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Jingxi Wang received his B.S. degree from Fuzhou University in 2018. He is presently pursuing his master's degree at the National Key Laboratory of Nano/Micro Fabrication Technology, Peking University, Beijing, China. His research interests include silicon PIN detector, triboelectric nanogenerators and self-powered system.
Kequan Xia received his B.S. degree from Central South University in 2015. He is currently pursuing his master's degree at Zhejiang University. His research interests include Triboelectric Nanogenerators and related self-powered system.
Jiale Liu received the B.S. degree from the Jilin University of China, Changchun, in 2017. She is currently pursuing the master degree at the National Key Laboratory of Nano/Micro Fabrication Technology, Peking University, Beijing, China. Her research interests mainly include design and fabrication of pulse radiation detector.
Tiesong Li received the B.S. degree from Fuzhou University. He is currently pursuing the master degree at the National Key Laboratory of Nano/Micro Fabrication Technology, Peking University, Beijing, China. His research interests mainly include design and fabrication of high-pressure radiation detector.
Xinyang Zhao received the B.S. from Hefei University of Technology, Hefei, China, in 2016.He is currently pursuing the Ph.D. degree in School of Information Science and Technology, Peking University, Beijing, China. His research interests mainly include Microelectronic sensor and Navigation.
Bin Shu is an undergraduate student at Southwest University. His research interest is the electronic measurement of triboelectric nanogenerators.
Huan Li is currently an assistant professor at Zhejiang University. He got his Ph.D. from Zhejiang University in June, 2016. His research interests include high performance antennas, flexible electronics, and energy device. He has authored or coauthored more than 10 academic papers.
Jing Guo is an associate professor at Southwest University. His research interests include theoretical model and analysis for triboelectric nanogenerators. He has authored or coauthored more than 10 academic papers.
Min Yu is currently an associate professor at Peking University. He got the Ph.D. in microelectronics and solid-state electronics at Peking University. He has been a visiting scholar at Michigan State University (2016–2017) and engaged in flexible and printing nano-electronics. His research interests include silicon detectors, nano-electronics, mirco- and nano-fabrication.
Wei Tang is a professor at the Beijing Institute of Nanoenergy and Nanosystems, Chinese Academy of Sciences. He received his B.S. and Ph.D. degrees from the School of Physics and School of Electronics Engineering and Computer Science in 2008 and 2013, respectively, from Peking University, China. His research interests include triboelectric nanogenerators, self-powered systems and wireless sensing networks, and micro/nanoengineering. He has authored or coauthored more than 50 academic papers and applied for more than 20 invention patents.
Zhiyuan Zhu is currently a professor at Southwest University. He got his B.S in electronic science and technology (microelectronics technology) at university of electronic science and technology of china, Ph.D. in microelectronics and solid state electronics at Peking University, and he was a visiting scholar of Georgia institute of technology (2013–2014). He worked as an assistant professor at Zhejiang University before joining southwest university in 2019. His research involves various issues in self-powered electronics and micro fabrication.