Untersuchung und Charakterisierung von PMD (Photomischdetektor)-Strukturen und ihren Grundschaltungen

In the last 6 years, a novel optoelectronic detector called Photonic Mixer Device (PMD) has been developed at the University of Siegen, which opens up new perspectives for fast, highprecision non-contact range measurement and 3D-imaging using the time-of-flight (TOF) method. In this thesis the characteristic features of various semiconductor-based PMD structures and their modelling as well as further possibility of applying PMD-principle to other technologies are studied.
The first part of this work deals with the systematic description and analysis of the photogate (PG-) PMD. A distinctive feature of the PMD compared to conventional photodetectors is its push-pull mixing process directly in the photosensitive region. A functional model of the PGPMD is developed enabling to simulate modulation and correlation properties, especially the behaviour of the suppression of non-correlated background illumination by short time
integration.
In the second part a variety of implementations of the PMD-concept is presented. One of the most important implementations is the MSM-PMD based on the metal-semiconductor-metal structure. It takes advantage of the very wide modulation bandwidth of MSM-detectors and possesses particularly the inherent ability to suppress the background illumination. The MSMPMD structure can be extended to a so-called “Optoelectronic Processor” (OEP), which is
able to perform high speed optoelectronic analog and digital signal processing. Further semiconductor-based PMD realisation possibilities are also briefly discussed.
Moreover, the PMD-principle is applicable to other detector technologies. Some possible implementations such as MMDs (Microwave Mixer Devices), PMT-PMD (Photomultiplier Tube PMD) and MCP-PMD (Microchannel Plate PMD) will be described.