Innovative position photodetectors for large-area sensing and high-precision sustainable Robotics

Objective

Optoelectronic materials are a critical component of photodetectors, such as photodiodes, photoresistors and phototransistors, which are used in industrial and consumer electronics. In order for the transition to digitisation and the Internet of Things (IoT) to become a global reality, as well as for the development of applications ranging from robotics and autonomous navigation to healthcare, billions of photodetectors must be installed everywhere. Therefore, sustainably increasing the production of optoelectronic materials is a significant milestone. With this in mind, I-BOT's main objective is to commercialise a new family of photodetectors that will transform the industrial landscape by overcoming the current challenges of toxicity, scarcity, and integration costs. Manufactured exclusively by soft chemistry, these devices will offer cost-efficient single-chip solutions for optical sensing. In this context, silicon photodiodes, especially optical position-sensitive devices (PSDs), are set to revolutionise industrial optical tracking and displacement sensing applications. PSDs have demonstrated the potential of this technology for the high-speed response and high-resolution control of robot positioning. However, applying PSDs to robotics requires challenging qualities such as a large active area, high linearity, sensitivity and broadband detection, which are often unattainable for material scientists and engineers. I-BOT, developed using technology from the ERC StG SENSiSOFT, offers a solution to bridge the gap between PSDs and robotics. This technology will produce PSDs with an unprecedented active area of 100 cm², which is 10 to 20 times larger than that obtained using traditional methods, as well as providing, high-speed response and sensitivity down to 100 nW.