Silicon–germanium avalanche photodiodes with direct control of electric field in charge multiplication region

Zeng, Xiaoge; Huang, Zhihong; Wang, Binhao; Liang, Di; Fiorentino, Marco; Beausoleil, Raymond G.

doi:10.1364/optica.6.000772

Cited by 48 publications

(35 citation statements)

References 14 publications

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“…Metal-semiconductor-metal (MSM), p-i-n, and separate absorption charge multiplication (SACM) structures are commonly used for the fabrication of APDs [23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36]. Avalanche MSM detectors are compatible with semiconductor nanofabrication processes and operate under low biases [25].…”

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confidence: 99%

“…Such emerging applications typically have targeted speeds beyond 10 Gbps per optical carrier wavelength [50,51]. Besides that, APDs should ideally have a compact footprint, Si-foundry compatibility, high gain-bandwidth products, and low noise characteristics, which are difficult to simultaneously obtain [23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38][39][40][41][42]. More recent works have concentrated on APD structures driven at low voltages (<10 V), with transmission bit rates of 10 Gbps [27][28][29][30] and 25 Gbps [31,33], respectively.…”

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confidence: 99%

“…Recently, low-bias operation was also achieved in Si-Ge APDs with two-and three-terminal design layouts. The bit rate was 25 Gbps only for both full-receiver [35] and receiverless [36] circuit arrangements, however.…”

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confidence: 99%

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40 Gbps heterostructure germanium avalanche photo receiver on a silicon chip

Benedikovič¹,

Virot²,

Aubin³

et al. 2020

Optica

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Photodetectors are cornerstone components in integrated optical circuits and are essential for applications underlying modern science and engineering. Structures harnessing conventional crystalline materials are typically at the heart of such devices. In particular, group-IV semiconductors such as silicon and germanium open up more possibilities for high-performing on-chip photodetection thanks to their favorable electrical and optical properties at near-infrared wavelengths and processing compatibility with modern chip manufacturing. However, scaling the performance of silicon-germanium photodetectors to technologically relevant levels and benefiting from improved speed, reduced driving bias, enhanced sensitivity, and lowered power consumption arguably remains key for densely integrated photonic links in mainstream shortwave infrared optical communications. Here we report on a reliable 40 Gbps direct detection of chip-integrated silicon-germanium avalanche p-in photo receiver driven with low-bias supplies at 1.55 µm wavelength. The avalanche photodetection scheme calls upon fabrication steps commonly used in complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor foundries, alleviating the need for complex epitaxial wafer structures and/or multiple ion implantation schemes. The photo receiver exhibits an internal multiplication gain of 120, a high gain-bandwidth product up to 210 GHz, and a low effective ionization coefficient of ∼0.25. Robust and stable photodetection at 40 Gbps of on-off keying modulation is achieved at low optical input powers, without any need for receiver electronic stages. Simultaneously, compact avalanche p-in photodetectors with submicrometric heterostructures promote error-free operation at transmission bit rates of 32 Gbps and 40 Gbps, with power sensitivities of −12.8 dBm and −11.2 dBm, respectively (for 10 −9 error rate and without error correction coding during use). Such a performance in an on-chip avalanche photodetector is a significant step toward large-scale integrated optoelectronic systems. These achievements are promising for use in data center networks, optical interconnects, or quantum information technologies.

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40 Gbps heterostructure germanium avalanche photo receiver on a silicon chip

Benedikovič¹,

Virot²,

Aubin³

et al. 2020

Optica

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“…Because of that, extra electronic stages with trans-impedance amplifiers (TIA) or limiting amplifiers (LA) are typically attached to the devices. Improved performance photo-detectors can be obtained by switching over to devices that exploit an internal multiplication gain 1,14,[40][41][42][43][44][45][46][47][48] , i.e. on-chip avalanche photodetectors (APDs).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, devices with topilluminated 41,42 or waveguide-coupled 43 architectures call upon high voltages, typically beyond 20 V, and still operate with a bit rate of 10 Gbps only. State-of-the-art Si-Ge APDs can nowadays be operated with voltages lower than 10 V. The working speeds are still limited to 10 Gbps 44,45 or 25 Gbps [46][47][48] , however.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

28 Gbps silicon-germanium hetero-structure avalanche photodetectors

Benedikovič

Virot

Aubin

et al. 2020

Integrated Optics: Devices, Materials, and Technologies XXIV

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Owing to its low-cost, high-yield, and dense integration ability, silicon nanophotonics is a good candidate to tackle the needs of exponentially growing communications in data centers, high-performance computers, and cloud services. Moreover, a number of nanophotonic functions are now available on a single chip, as they take advantages of siliconfoundry process maturity and epitaxial germanium integration. Optical photodetectors are key building blocks in the library of group-IV components and their performances are quite successful nowadays. In particular, silicon-germanium waveguide-integrated photodetectors are fixing new standards for next generation of on-chip interconnects in terms of compactness, speed, power consumption and cost. Indeed, conventional pin photodetectors yield good responsivities (~1 A/W in a 1.5 µm wavelength range), high bandwidths (~50 GHz), and dark currents well below 1 µA. Despite recent advances, their optical power sensitivities remain rather modest and speeds are limited to 25 Gbps only, however. Compensating for the insufficient photodetector sensitivity requires higher transmitter output powers and therefore higher energy consumption. Additional energy savings can be obtained by eliminating receiver electronics. Alternatively, an appealing approach is to exploit device structures with an internal multiplication gain to lower even more the power budget and improve energy efficiency of chip-based optical links. In this work, we report on waveguideintegrated photodetectors with lateral silicon-germanium-silicon heterojunctions. Here, we present avalanche photodetectors fabricated on 200-mm silicon-on-insulator wafers using complementary metal-oxide-semiconductorcompatible processes. Devices operate in the low-gain-regime to facilitate high-speed link operations at 1.55 µm wavelengths. An error-free signal detection was achieved at 28 Gbps, with power sensitivity of-11 dBm for 10-9 biterror-rate, which is a relevant link rate for emerging chip-scale optical interconnects.

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Multilayer Graphene/Epitaxial Silicon Near‐Infrared Self‐Quenched Avalanche Photodetectors

Li,

Cao,

Zhang

et al. 2024

Advanced Optical Materials

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Abstract2D materials and their heterostructures exhibit considerable potential in the development of avalanche photodetectors (APDs) with high gain, response, and signal‐to‐noise ratio. These materials hold promise in addressing inherent technical challenges associated with APDs, such as low light absorption coefficient, elevated noise current, and substantial power consumption due to high bias resulting in only moderate current gain. In this work, a macro‐assembled graphene nanofilm (nMAG)/epitaxial silicon (epi‐Si) vertical heterostructure photodetector with a responsivity of 0.38 A W−1 and a response time of 1.4 µs is reported. The photodetectors use high‐quality nMAG as the absorption layer and a lightly‐doped epi‐Si layer as the multiplication region under the avalanche mode to provide a high responsivity (2.51 mA W−1) and detectivity (2.67 × 109 Jones) at 1550 nm, which can achieve high‐resolution imaging. In addition, the APD displays a weak noise level and an avalanche gain of M = 1123. It can work with relatively low avalanche turn‐on voltages and achieve self‐quenching by switching from illumination to dark during avalanche multiplication, with a real‐time data transfer rate of 38 Mbps in near‐infrared light communication data links. The proposed structure enables the fabrication of high‐performance APDs in the infrared range using complementary‐metal‐oxide‐semiconductor (CMOS)‐compatible processes.

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Silicon–germanium avalanche photodiodes with direct control of electric field in charge multiplication region

Cited by 48 publications

References 14 publications

40 Gbps heterostructure germanium avalanche photo receiver on a silicon chip

40 Gbps heterostructure germanium avalanche photo receiver on a silicon chip

28 Gbps silicon-germanium hetero-structure avalanche photodetectors

Multilayer Graphene/Epitaxial Silicon Near‐Infrared Self‐Quenched Avalanche Photodetectors

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