Planar monolithic integration of a photodiode and a GaAs preamplifier

Abstract

A monolithic optical receiver chip consisting of a pin photodiode and a transimpedance preamplifier on a GaAs semi-insulating substrate is reported. The epitaxial layers for the photodiode are grown by hydride vapor phase epitaxy and the circuit elements are fabricated by selective ion implantation in the semi-insulating substrate. The integration scheme results in a planar surface which simplifies the processing of optoelectronic integrated chips.

Optical Devices

“…PIN photodiodes are usually employed in the receivers based on both material systems due to the desirable properties of PINs such as high speed, low dark current and low bias voltage [Kolbas et al 1983 andKasahara et al 1984]. Therefore, GaAs technology is more mature compared with other III-V technologies.…”

Optoelectronic Integreated Circuits for Photonic Systems

“…However, steps exist especially at peripheries of the laser structure posing considerable problem in proceeding photolithographic steps. Several techniques such as electrochemical polishing [40], selective solvent etching [41] and grading the step to low slope angle [42], have been used to counter this problem.…”

“…3 K. Also a reasonable value of the equivalent noise current of 13 pA/Hz at 300 MHz is obtained. A planar embeded PIN/FET structure has also been developed by a surface planarisation tehnique using electrochemical etching [40]. Ion beam etching technique has also been used for planaristion.…”

Numerical investigation of monolithic heterojunction and buried layer GaAs lateral p-i-n photodetectors

“…These include heterojunction metal-semiconductor-metal ͑HMSM͒ photodetectors 6 and various monolithic p-i-n structures. 7,8 In this paper, we propose two derivatives of the lateral p-i-n ͑LPIN͒ photodetector, 9 a heterojunction lateral p-i-n ͑HLPIN͒ and a buried layer lateral p-i-n ͑BLPIN͒. The performance of these structures is examined through numerical simulation and comparison is made to both HMSM and LPIN devices.…”