Comportement thermique d'une ligne de microphotodiodes

The behavior of a self-scanned photodiode array when thermal generation-recombination effects are present has been studied. Our experimental results show the validity of the step junction theoretical approach to this problem and that the linearity of the response in the presence of strong thermal contributions is well verified. We show, however, a decrease in the slope of the response and in the dynamic range as a function of n(i)(theta)T (intrinsic concentration by integration time). An attempt to fit our experimental results with the predictions of the linear junction model (which provides for a nonlinear response) has given negative results. Our conclusions are that thermal effects do reduce the over-all efficiency of this particular device but do not rule out its use as a linear detector.