A novel PIN photodetector with double linear arrays for rainfall prediction

A novel PIN (positive-intrinsic-negative) photodetector with double linear arrays that can be used to measure the diameter of precipitation particles and the space between two droplets in clouds is proposed. The sensitive unit is the PIN photodiode. The chip with a size of 10 × 8 mm 2 has 128 photodiodes, and each row has 64 photodiodes. The device design, fabrication process and package are introduced in the paper. The photocurrent of the packaged chip was systematically tested with a red laser. Also the diameter of one water drop and the space between two water drops were measured. The minimum raindrop diameter which can be tested in this paper is 100 μ m. This device can be useful for rainfall prediction.