Optical Pixel Sensor Based on a-Si:H TFTs to Detect Combined Optical Signals for Multiuser Interactive Displays

This article presents new optical pixel sensors that are based on hydrogenated amorphous silicon thin-film transistors (a-Si:H TFTs) for detecting secondary color optical signals to increase the number of colors of sensed light. Three types of series-connected structure with different photo TFTs enable the sensors to receive secondary color optical input signals that combine any two primary colors, such as magenta (blue and red), cyan (green and blue), and yellow (red and green). The secondary color optical sensors also prevent from being affected by light of a single color to integrate with primary color optical sensors for realizing a six-color sensing mechanism. Moreover, only one photo TFT is used to suppress the effect of ambient white light by compensating photocurrents without increasing the complexity of the proposed sensor structure. The measurements demonstrate that the difference in the output voltages is 15.6 V even under ambient white light with an intensity of 10000 lux, proving that the proposed sensor can yield significantly different sensing results with and without an optical input signal under intense ambient white light. Thus, the proposed sensors increase the number of sensed color light that can be integrated with a large TFT-LCD panel for multiuser interaction.