US Patent Issued to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing on July 15 for "Germanium-based photodetector with reduced dark current" (Taiwanese Inventors)

ALEXANDRIA, Va., July 16 -- United States Patent no. 12,364,036, issued on July 15, was assigned to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. Ltd. (Hsinchu, Taiwan).

"Germanium-based photodetector with reduced dark current" was invented by Yeh-Hsun Fang (Taipei, Taiwan), Zhi-Wei Zhuang (Hsinchu, Taiwan) and Li-Hsin Chu (New Taipei, Taiwan).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A photodetector including a substrate having a semiconductor material layer, such as a silicon-containing layer, and a germanium-based well embedded in the semiconductor material layer, where a gap is located between a lateral side surface of the germanium-based well and the surrounding semiconductor material layer. The gap betwee...