High-performance photoreceivers based on vertical-illumination type Ge-on-Si photodetectors operating up to 43 Gb/s at λ~1550nm

Abstract

We present high-sensitivity photoreceivers based on a vertical- illumination-type 100% Ge-on-Si p-i-n photodetectors (PDs), which operate up to 50 Gb/s with high responsivity. A butterfly-packaged photoreceiver using a Ge PD with 3-dB bandwidth (f(-3dB)) of 29 GHz demonstrates the sensitivities of -10.15 dBm for 40 Gb/s data rate and -9.47 dBm for 43 Gb/s data rate, at BER of 10(-12) and λ ~1550 nm. Also a photoreceiver based on a Ge PD with f(-3dB)~19 GHz shows -14.14 dBm sensitivity at 25 Gb/s operation. These results prove the high performance levels of vertical-illumination type Ge PDs ready for practical high-speed network applications.

State-of-the-art photodetectors for optoelectronic integration at telecommunication wavelength

“…With state-of-the-art fabrication technology, the multiplication gain has been boosted to 680 at 8 V bias [96], the speed increased up to 43 Gb/s at 1550 nm with bit-error rate 10 −12 [97]. Meanwhile, the input power can be reduced to as low as −35 dBm [98].…”

Growth, structural, and electrical properties of germanium-on-silicon heterostructure by molecular beam epitaxy

“…Concurrently, germanium (Ge) has emerged as a strong candidate to maintain device performance at low operating voltages, 1 primarily owing to its superior carrier mobility and ease of integration into mainstream Si process flow. More recently, researchers have focused on the development of Ge-based electronic and optoelectronic devices, including: (i) Ge lasers on Si for on-chip integrated photonics; 2,3 (ii) high-speed and high-sensitivity Ge photoreceivers on Si 4,5 for optical data communication; (iii) Ge-based metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistors (MOSFETs) for low-power logic; 6,7 (iv) Ge-based complementary-metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) integrated circuits; 8 and (v) Ge-based quantum well fin field-effect transistors (FinFETs) [9][10][11] for next-generation high-speed, low-power logic applications. Thin epitaxial Ge layers have also been introduced as a buffer layer for developing GaAs solar cells on Si 12,13 and in hybrid IV/III-V multijunction solar cell configurations.…”

100 Gb/s photoreceiver module based on 4ch × 25 Gb/s vertical-illumination-type Ge-on-Si photodetectors and amplifier circuits

“…Recently, there has been remarkable progress in Ge-on-Si photodetectors (Ge PDs) [14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26], which are the main active components in silicon optical receivers, and also in CMOS ICs for optical/electrical (O/E) interface and all-silicon photonic/CMOS receivers [6][7][8][9][28][29][30][31][32][33][34]. There have been reports on silicon photonic receivers where Ge waveguide (WG) PDs on SOI substrates and CMOS Rx ICs were monolithic-or hybrid-integrated [2,[28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36].…”

“…There have been reports on silicon photonic receivers where Ge waveguide (WG) PDs on SOI substrates and CMOS Rx ICs were monolithic-or hybrid-integrated [2,[28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36]. In general, most of reported Ge PDs are waveguide-type defined on SOI [2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34], whereas most of CMOS ICs are based on bulk silicon technology. On the other hand, vertical-illumination Ge PDs are defined on bulk silicon [6,9,22,[24][25][26], and are of interest since they can enable the monolithic integration with bulk CMOS ICs more realistic, and have a big advantage in packaging with optical fiber.…”

“…In general, most of reported Ge PDs are waveguide-type defined on SOI [2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34], whereas most of CMOS ICs are based on bulk silicon technology. On the other hand, vertical-illumination Ge PDs are defined on bulk silicon [6,9,22,[24][25][26], and are of interest since they can enable the monolithic integration with bulk CMOS ICs more realistic, and have a big advantage in packaging with optical fiber. However, it is rarely reported, since simultaneous achievement of both high-speed and high-responsivity characteristics in a vertical-illumination type PD is difficult due to the trade-off between responsivity and speed of the device [24][25][26].…”