Achieving higher photoabsorption than group III-V semiconductors in silicon using photon-trapping surface structures

Qarony, Wayesh; Mayet, Ahmed S.; Devine, Ekaterina Ponizovskaya; Ghandiparsi, Soroush; Bartolo-Perez, Cesar; Ahamed, Ahasan; Rawat, Amita; Mamtaz, Hasina; Yamada, Toshio; Wang, Shih-Yuan; Islam, M. Saif

doi:10.1364/optica.483660

Cited by 1 publication

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“…Researchers have also demonstrated high absorption efficiency and speed by introducing the photonic crystals into the detectors. [14][15][16][17][18] Researchers have demonstrated tremendous performance with 3 dB bandwidths as 50+ GHz in an InGaAsbased PiN photodiode, 10,13 30 GHz in germanium on SOI-based lateral PiN, 19 20 GHz in silicon detectors by utilizing defect mediated sub-bad absorption, 20 and 15 GHz in an InP/InGaAs/InP based PiN. 11 The provision opted to achieve such exceptionally high bandwidth demands sophisticated manufacturing processes such as heterogeneous 3D integration, alloying, and thulium fiber coupling, which adds to the cost.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

High-speed PiN photodiode design space exploration to break the speed-efficiency trade-off

Rawat,

Islam

2024

Physics and Simulation of Optoelectronic Devices XXXII

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Ever-evolving imaging and low-to-single photon-count detection applications demand high-speed, efficient, and complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) compatible photodetectors. Due to the non-overlapping research and development in the CMOS logic and optoelectronic industry, holistic system optimization is lacking. We propose a PiN device design method addressing the speed-efficiency trade-off and enabling an independent optimization of both speed and absorption efficiency. We present a hybrid device structure combining lateral and vertical PiN architectures. We introduce a highly doped buried P + − region connecting the top P + − contact doping and separating the N + -contact doping by a critical width. The top P + − and N + − contacts are laterally separated by an i-layer for absorption. The use of a lateral i-layer enables a larger volume for efficient photon absorption, and the presence of a highly doped P + − region enables an efficient collection of slow-moving holes after the illumination is turned off. The critical i-layer width sandwiched between the buried P + − region and the N + − contact doping facilitates an efficient conduction path. We optimize the critical width (optimized width = 200 nm) for device capacitance and the admittance to maximize the response time (rise time, fall time, and full-width half maxima). The optimization is performed using ATLAS Silvaco technology computer-aided design software. The optimized device structure possesses 22 GHz 3 dB bandwidth (BW = 0.35/Fall-time) at 850 nm illumination wavelength as against 0.6-10 GHz 3 dB bandwidth range for conventional PiN devices. We also show that reducing the critical width to zero results in impact ionization drive avalanche phenomenon at ∼6 V applied bias, making these devices suitable for low-power and low-photon count detection. With a large absorber width, an optimized critical conduction path, and a low-bias trigger avalanche process, the proposed photodiodes result in high-speed, high-bandwidth, low-photon count detection, essential for state-of-the-art light detection and ranging systems and the single-photon detectors for quantum communications.

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