Buried-mesa avalanche photodiodes

We have developed a low-cost buried-mesa avalanche photodiode (APD) primarily targeted for 2.5-Gb/s lightwave applications. These APDs are made by a simple batch process that produces a robust and reliable device with potentially high yield and thus low cost. The entire base structure of our InGaAs-...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inIEEE journal of quantum electronics Vol. 34; no. 12; pp. 2321 - 2326
Main Authors Hasnain, G., Bi, W.G., Song, S., Anderson, J.T., Moll, N., Chung-Yi Su, Hollenhorst, J.N., Baynes, N.D., Athroll, I., Amos, S., Ash, R.M.
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published New York, NY IEEE 01.12.1998
Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
Subjects
Applied sciences
Avalanche photodiodes
Bandwidth
Costs
Dark current
Electric breakdown
Electronics
Etching
Exact sciences and technology
Laser noise
Metallization
Optical noise
Optoelectronic devices
Robustness
Semiconductor electronics. Microelectronics. Optoelectronics. Solid state devices
Ternary compound
Gallium Arsenides
Binary compound
Indium Phosphides
Optical receiver
Photodiode
MESA diode
Avalanche diode
Indium Arsenides
III-V compound
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Summary:We have developed a low-cost buried-mesa avalanche photodiode (APD) primarily targeted for 2.5-Gb/s lightwave applications. These APDs are made by a simple batch process that produces a robust and reliable device with potentially high yield and thus low cost. The entire base structure of our InGaAs-InP APD is grown in one epitaxial step and the remaining process consists of four simple steps including a mesa etch, one epitaxial overgrowth, isolation, and metallization. Buried-mesa APDs fabricated in this way show high uniform gain that rises smoothly to breakdown with increasing reverse bias. When biased to operate at a gain of 10, these unoptimized devices show dark current less than 20 nA, excess noise factor less than 5, and a 3-dB bandwidth of about 4 GHz. With a 1550-nm laser modulated at 2488 Mb/s, a maximum sensitivity of -327 dBm was obtained with an optical receiver using one such APD, without antireflection coatings. These APD's not only demonstrate excellent device characteristics but also high reliability under rigorous stress testing. No degradation was observed even after being biased near breakdown for over 2000 h at 200/spl deg/C.
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ISSN:0018-9197
1558-1713
DOI:10.1109/3.736100