Double Pin Photodiodes with Two Optical Gate Connections for Light Triggering

Light-activated multiplexer/demultiplexer silicon-carbon devices are analyzed. An electrical model for the device operation is presented and used to compare output signals with experimental data. An algorithm that takes into accounts the voltage and the optical bias controlled sensitivities are developed. The device is a double pi´n/pin a-SiC:H heterostructure with two optical gate connections for light triggering in different spectral regions. Multiple monochromatic pulsed communication channels were transmitted together, each one with a specific bit sequence. The combined optical signal was analyzed by reading out, under different applied voltages and optical bias, the generated photocurrent across the device. Experimental and simulated results show that the output multiplexed signal has a strong nonlinear dependence on the light absorption profile, i.e., on the incident light wavelength, bit rate and intensity under unbalanced light generation of carriers. By switching between positive and negative voltages the input channels can be recovered or removed.