Title :
A High-Speed and Low-Breakdown-Voltage Silicon Avalanche Photodetector
Author :
Chih-Kuo Tseng ; Ku-Hung Chen ; Wei-Ting Chen ; Lee, Ming-Chang M. ; Na, Neil
Author_Institution :
Inst. of Photonics Technol., Nat. Tsing-Hua Univ., Hsinchu, Taiwan
Abstract :
A silicon avalanche photodetector with a low breakdown voltage of -6.78 V is demonstrated by narrowing down the intrinsic layer width of interdigitated p-i-n junctions to ~ 150 nm. It reaches the physical limit of avalanche breakdown in which the performance degradation caused by the Zener tunneling process is negligible. Dark current at -4 V is measured, and a responsivity (gain) exceeding 1.424 A/W (110) at -6.75 V is obtained with an 850-nm laser illumination. The intrinsic bandwidth is determined to be 10 GHz, suggesting our device is applicable for a 10-Gb/s high-speed optical receiver application and beyond.
Keywords :
avalanche breakdown; avalanche photodiodes; laser beams; optical receivers; p-i-n photodiodes; photodetectors; silicon; Si; Zener tunneling process; avalanche breakdown; bandwidth 10 GHz; bit rate 10 Gbit/s; dark current; high-speed optical receiver application; high-speed silicon avalanche photodetector; interdigitated p-i-n junctions; intrinsic bandwidth; intrinsic layer width; laser illumination; low-breakdown-voltage silicon avalanche photodetector; performance degradation; physical limit; responsivity; voltage -4 V; voltage -6.78 V; wavelength 850 nm; Bandwidth; Current measurement; Dark current; Optical fiber communication; PIN photodiodes; Silicon; Substrates; Silicon; avalanche photodetector (APD); optical communication;
Journal_Title :
Photonics Technology Letters, IEEE
DOI :
10.1109/LPT.2014.2300853
