Excess noise in GaAs avalanche photodiodes with thin multiplication regions

Author

Hu, C. ; Anselm, K.A. ; Streetman, B.G. ; Campbell, J.C.

Author_Institution

Dept. of Electr. Eng., Texas Univ., Austin, TX, USA

Volume

33

Issue

7

fYear

1997

fDate

7/1/1997 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

1089

Lastpage

1093

Abstract

It is well known that the gain-bandwidth product of an avalanche photodiode can be increased by utilizing a thin multiplication region. Previously, measurements of the excess noise factor of InP-InGaAsP-InGaAs avalanche photodiodes with separate absorption and multiplication regions indicated that this approach could also be employed to reduce the multiplication noise. This paper presents a systematic study of the noise characteristics of GaAs homojunction avalanche photodiodes with different multiplication layer thicknesses. It is demonstrated that there is a definite “size effect” for multiplication regions less than approximately 0.5 μm. A good fit to the experimental data has been achieved using a discrete, nonlocalized model for the impact ionization process

Keywords

III-V semiconductors; avalanche photodiodes; gallium arsenide; impact ionisation; optical receivers; p-i-n photodiodes; semiconductor device models; semiconductor device noise; size effect; 0.1 to 0.8 mum; GaAs; GaAs avalanche photodiodes; discrete nonlocalized model; excess noise factor; gain-bandwidth product; homojunction avalanche photodiodes; impact ionization process; multiplication layer thickness; multiplication noise; noise characteristics; optical fiber receiver sensitivity; p-i-n structure; size effect; thin multiplication regions; Absorption; Avalanche photodiodes; Bandwidth; Charge carrier processes; Gallium arsenide; Impact ionization; Noise reduction; Optical fibers; Performance gain; Quantum well devices;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Quantum Electronics, IEEE Journal of

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0018-9197

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/3.594870

Filename

594870