Silicon germanium photodetector apparatus and other semiconductor devices including curved-shape silicon germanium structures

• Main Authors: Alloatti, Luca, Cheian, Dinis, Ram, Rajeev Jagga
• Format: Patent
• Language: English
• Published: 06.08.2019
• Subjects: BASIC ELECTRIC ELEMENTS; ELECTRIC SOLID STATE DEVICES NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR; ELECTRICITY; OPTICAL ELEMENTS, SYSTEMS, OR APPARATUS; OPTICS; PHYSICS; SEMICONDUCTOR DEVICES

Semiconductor devices, such as photonics devices, employ substantially curved-shaped Silicon-Germanium (SiGe) structures and are fabricated using zero-change CMOS fabrication process technologies. In one example, a closed-loop resonator waveguide-coupled photodetector includes a silicon resonator structure formed in a silicon substrate, interdigitated n-doped well-implant regions and p-doped well-implant regions forming multiple silicon p-n junctions around the silicon resonator structure, and a closed-loop SiGe photocarrier generation region formed in a pocket within the interdigitated n-doped and p-doped well implant regions. The closed-loop SiGe region is located so as to substantially overlap with an optical mode of radiation when present in the silicon resonator structure, and traverses the multiple silicon p-n junctions around the silicon resonator structure. Electric fields arising from the respective p-n silicon junctions significantly facilitate a flow of the generated photocarriers between electric contact regions of the photodetector.