Avalanche Photodiode Structure Research Articles

Novel sensor developments for photon science at the MPG semiconductor laboratory

The world of photon science experiences significant advancements since the advent of synchrotron light sources with unprecedented brilliance, intensity and pulse repetition rates, with large implications on the detectors used for instrumentation. Here, an overview about the work on this field carried out at the semiconductor laboratory of the Max-Planck-Society (MPG HLL) is given. Main challenges are high dynamic range to resolve faint features at the fringes of scatter images as well as structures in bright peaks, and high bandwidth to fully exploit the fast timing capability of the source. A newly developed device to improve the signal-to-noise-ratio (SNR) at high bandwidths is the so-called MARTHA (Monolithic Array of Reach-Through Avalanche Photodiodes) structure, which integrates an array of APDs on a monolithic substrate. The reach-through architecture assures near 100% fill factor and allows implementing a thin entrance window with optimized quantum efficiency for low energy X-rays. The structures operate in proportional mode with adjustable gain, and can serve as a drop-in replacement for PAD detectors in hybrid pixel systems. A more sophisticated solution for low to medium frame rate applications with high contrast requirement are pnCCDs with high dynamic range in the pixel area featuring DEPFET based readout nodes with non-linear amplification (NLA). The high dynamic range mode has been demonstrated for pnCCD devices with a pixel size down to 75 μm2. Framerates of up to 1 kHz are possible for a 1 Megapixel detector. Small size prototypes of these structures have recently been manufactured. Modified DEPFET structures with build-in non-linear amplification are also used to implement active pixel detectors optimized for high dynamic range. Successfully prototyped for the DSSC sensors (DEPFET Sensor with Signal Compression) at the XFEL, these structures are increasingly being used in applications requiring high contrast and intensity, e.g., TEM imaging. Charge handling capability and output characteristics can be tailored to the requirements, as well as pixel geometry and size. The large intrinsic gain of the DEPFET provides excellent SNR even at fast timing. Pixels can be read with a speed of 100 ns, the resulting frame rate depends on the degree of readout parallelization.

Ion-implanted Al0.6Ga0.4N deep-ultraviolet avalanche photodiodes

A deep-ultraviolet Al0.6Ga0.4N p–i–n avalanche photodiode (APD) structure was grown on a (0001) AlN bulk substrate by metalorganic chemical vapor deposition. The wafer was fabricated into 20 μm diameter mesa APD devices both with and without ion-implantation with nitrogen ions on the periphery of the p-type region of the diode mesa and tested. The dark current density vs bias, photoresponse, and the optical gain of the APDs with and without ion implantation were compared. The devices fabricated with ion implantation showed improved performance, exhibiting lower dark current densities of ∼1 × 10−9 A/cm2 and a higher optical gain of ∼5.2 × 105 at a current density limit of 0.3 A/cm2. The average temperature coefficients of the reverse-bias breakdown voltage were also compared. Although the data showed negative coefficients for APDs fabricated both with and without ion implantation, the ion-implanted APDs showed an improvement relative to the devices fabricated without ion-implantation.

Structural design of dual carrier multiplication avalanche photodiodes on InP substrate

Avalanche photodiodes are widely used in various fields, such as optical communication and laser radar, because of their high multiplication. In order to adapt to very weak signal detection applications, devices are required to have higher gain values. The existing avalanche photodiodes generally use single carrier multiplication mode of operation, its multiplication effect is limited. In this paper is designed an InP/In<sub>0.53</sub>Ga<sub>0.47</sub>As/In<sub>0.52</sub>Al<sub>0.48</sub>As avalanche photodiode structure with electrons and holes jointly involved in multiplication. In this structure, In<sub>0.53</sub>Ga<sub>0.47</sub>As material is used for the absorption layer, InP material is used for the hole multiplication layer, In<sub>0.52</sub>Al<sub>0.48</sub>As is used for the electron multiplication layer, and the two multiplication layers are distributed on the upper side and lower side of the absorber layer. Under the reverse bias, the photogenerated electrons and the absorber-layer generated holes can enter into the respective multiplier layers in different directions and create the avalanche multiplication effect, so that the carriers are fully utilized. This structure and the conventional single multiplication layer structure are simulated by Silvaco TCAD software. Comparing the single InP multiplication layer structure with the single In<sub>0.52</sub>Al<sub>0.48</sub>As multiplication layer structure, the gain value of the double multiplication layer structure at 95% breakdown voltage is about 2.3 times and about 2 times of the former two, respectively, and the device has a larger gain value because both carriers are involved in multiplication in both multiplication layers at the same time. The structure has a dark current of 1.5 nA at 95% breakdown voltage, which does not increase in comparison with the single multiplication layer structure, owing to the effective control of the electric field inside the structure by multiple charge layers. Therefore, this structure is expected to improve the detection sensitivity of the system.

Top-Illuminated Avalanche Photodiodes With Cascaded Multiplication Layers for High-Speed and Wide Dynamic Range Performance

In this work, a novel top-illuminated avalanche photodiode (APD) with a In <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">0.52</sub> Al <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">0.48</sub> As multiplication (M-) layer is demonstrated. The cascaded M-layer design combined with the unique p-side up mesa structure allows relaxation of the fundamental trade-off between the gain-bandwidth product and the dark current. This leads to the simultaneous high-responsivity, high-speed, high-saturation-power, and low-dark current characteristics of our APDs. At around 0.9 V <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">br</sub> operation, the demonstrated device with its simple top-illuminated structure and large active window (mesa) diameter of 14 (24) μm exhibits a high responsivity (2.23 A/W), wide optical-to-electrical bandwidth (30 GHz), large gain-bandwidth product (270 GHz), low dark current (∼200 nA), and a saturation current as high as 11 mA. The excellent performance of this APD structure opens up new possibilities to further enhance the sensitivity performance of receivers for coherent communications or 106 Gbit/sec PAM-4 applications.

Breakdown characteristics of deep-ultraviolet Al0.6Ga0.4N p-i-n avalanche photodiodes

A top-illuminated deep-ultraviolet Al0.6Ga0.4N p-i-n avalanche photodiode (APD) structure was designed and grown by metalorganic chemical vapor deposition on an AlN bulk substrate and on two different quality AlN/sapphire templates, and APDs were fabricated and tested. The APD devices with a circular diameter of 20 μm have demonstrated a distinctive reverse-bias breakdown behavior. The reverse breakdown voltage of the APDs is approximately −140 V, which corresponds to a breakdown electric field of 6–6.2 MV/cm for the Al0.6Ga0.4N material as estimated by Silvaco TCAD simulation. The APDs grown on the AlN bulk substrate show the lowest leakage current density of &amp;lt;1 × 10−8 A/cm2 (at low reverse bias) compared to that of the devices grown on the AlN templates. From the photocurrent measurement, a maximum gain (current limited) of 1.2 × 104 is calculated. The average temperature coefficients of the breakdown voltage are negative for APD devices fabricated from both the AlN bulk substrate and the AlN templates, but these data show that the coefficient is the least negative for the APD devices grown on the low-dislocation-density AlN bulk substrate.

Study of HgCdTe (100) and HgCdTe (111)B Heterostructures Grown by MOCVD and Their Potential Application to APDs Operating in the IR Range up to 8 µm.

The trend related to reach the high operating temperature condition (HOT, temperature, T > 190 K) achieved by thermoelectric (TE) coolers has been observed in infrared (IR) technology recently. That is directly related to the attempts to reduce the IR detector size, weight, and power dissipation (SWaP) conditions. The room temperature avalanche photodiodes technology is well developed in short IR range (SWIR) while devices operating in mid-wavelength (MWIR) and long-wavelength (LWIR) require cooling to suppress dark current due to the low energy bandgap. The paper presents research on the potential application of the HgCdTe (100) oriented and HgCdTe (111)B heterostructures grown by metal-organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) on GaAs substrates for the design of avalanche photodiodes (APDs) operating in the IR range up to 8 µm and under 2-stage TE cooling (T = 230 K). While HgCdTe band structure with molar composition xCd < 0.5 provides a very favorable hole-to-electron ionization coefficient ratio under avalanche conditions, resulting in increased gain without generating excess noise, the low level of background doping concentration and a low number of defects in the active layer is also required. HgCdTe (100) oriented layers exhibit better crystalline quality than HgCdTe (111)B grown on GaAs substrates, low dislocation density, and reduction of residual defects which contribute to a background doping within the range ~1014 cm–3. The fitting to the experimentally measured dark currents (at T = 230 K) of the N+-ν-p-P+ photodiodes commonly used as an APDs structure allowed to determine the material parameters. Experimentally extracted the mid-bandgap trap concentrations at the level of 2.5 × 1014 cm−3 and 1 × 1015 cm−3 for HgCdTe (100) and HgCdTe (111)B photodiode are reported respectively. HgCdTe (100) is better to provide high resistance, and consequently sufficient strength and uniform electric field distribution, as well as to avoid the tunneling current contribution at higher bias, which is a key issue in the proper operation of avalanche photodiodes. It was presented that HgCdTe (100) based N+-ν-p-P+ gain, M > 100 could be reached for reverse voltage > 5 V and excess noise factor F(M) assumes: 2.25 (active layer, xCd = 0.22, k = 0.04, M = 10) for λcut-off = 8 μm and T = 230 K. In addition the 4-TE cooled, 8 μm APDs performance was compared to the state-of-the-art for SWIR and MWIR APDs based mainly on III-V and HgCdTe materials (T = 77–300 K).

Low Noise Short Wavelength Infrared Avalanche Photodetector Using SB-Based Strained Layer Superlattice

We demonstrate low noise short wavelength infrared (SWIR) Sb-based type II superlattice (T2SL) avalanche photodiodes (APDs). The SWIR GaSb/(AlAsSb/GaSb) APD structure was designed based on impact ionization engineering and grown by molecular beam epitaxy on a GaSb substrate. At room temperature, the device exhibits a 50% cut-off wavelength of 1.74 µm. The device was revealed to have an electron-dominated avalanching mechanism with a gain value of 48 at room temperature. The electron and hole impact ionization coefficients were calculated and compared to give a better prospect of the performance of the device. Low excess noise, as characterized by a carrier ionization ratio of ~0.07, has been achieved.

High-Power and High-Responsivity Avalanche Photodiodes for Self-Heterodyne FMCW Lidar System Applications

In this work, we demonstrate the high-power and high-responsivity performance of the dual multiplication (M-) layers in In <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">0.52</sub> Al <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">0.48</sub> As based avalanche photodiode (APD). The dual M-layer design in our APD structure effectively constrains the multiplication process to a thin high-field region rather than the whole thick M-layer. It thus minimizes the space charge effect (SCE) within and avoids increasing the tunneling dark current for the case of directly shrinking M-layer thickness in APD. Furthermore, by combining the specially designed mesa shape with this dual M-layer structure, the edge breakdown can be well suppressed. These benefits lead to an ultra-high gain-bandwidth product (450 GHz; 1 A/W at unit gain) and a high saturation current (>12 mA) can be simultaneously achieved in our device. By nonlinearly driving a wavelength sweeping laser in the self-heterodyne lidar setup, it can generate an optical pulse train-like waveform, providing an effective optical modulation depth of 200% to feed into our demonstrated APD at the receiver-end. Under such scheme, the photo-generated RF (1 GHz) power from our APD with a 6.3 A/W responsivity can be as high as +6.95 dBm at a high (7 mA) output photocurrent. Such high-power and high-responsivity characteristics of our APD can further improve the signal-to-noise (S/N) ratio and dynamic range performances in each pixel of the lidar image. A high-quality 3-dimensional (D) FMCW lidar image is constructed based on our APD, without the integration of any electrical amplifier at the receiver end.

Avalanche Photodetector Based on InAs/InSb Superlattice

This work demonstrates a mid-wavelength infrared InAs/InSb superlattice avalanche photodiode (APD). The superlattice APD structure was grown by molecular beam epitaxy on GaSb substrate. The device exhibits a 100 % cut-off wavelength of 4.6 µm at 150 K and 4.30 µm at 77 K. At 150 and 77 K, the device responsivity reaches peak values of 2.49 and 2.32 A/W at 3.75 µm under −1.0 V applied bias, respectively. The device reveals an electron dominated avalanching mechanism with a gain value of 6 at 150 K and 7.4 at 77 K which was observed under −6.5 V bias voltage. The gain value was measured at different temperatures and different diode sizes. The electron and hole impact ionization coefficients were calculated and compared to give a better prospect of the performance of the device.

GaAs/Al0.8Ga0.2As separate absorption and multiplication region x-ray spectroscopic avalanche photodiodes

A GaAs/Al0.8Ga0.2As separate absorption and multiplication (SAM) x-ray avalanche photodiode (APD) structure was grown by metalorganic vapor phase epitaxy. Mesa photodiodes of different diameters (200 μm and 400 μm) were fabricated from the structure. Two of the photodiodes (one of each diameter) were characterized at 20 °C for their electrical properties and response to x rays using an 55Fe radioisotope x-ray (Mn Kα = 5.9 keV; Mn Kβ = 6.49 keV) source. An energy resolution of 508 eV ± 5 eV full width at half maximum (FWHM) at 5.9 keV was achieved at an apparent avalanche gain, M, of 1.1. This is the best energy resolution so far reported for GaAs/AlxGa1−xAs x-ray SAM APDs. The noise components associated with the achievable spectroscopic energy resolutions are reported. Comparisons between the 200 μm and 400 μm diameter GaAs/AlxGa1−xAs SAM x-ray APDs and recently studied GaAs p+-i-n+ detectors were made, showing that the inclusion of the avalanche layer improves the achievable energy resolution; energy resolutions of 508 eV FWHM at 5.9 keV at M = 1.1 and 603 eV FWHM at 5.9 keV at M = 1.2 were achieved with the 200 μm and 400 μm diameter GaAs/AlxGa1−xAs SAM x-ray APDs, respectively; this is better than was previously reported for similar devices without avalanche layers: 690 eV FWHM at 5.9 keV and 730 eV FWHM at 5.9 keV for 200 μm and 400 μm diameter GaAs p+-i-n+ detectors, respectively [Lioliou et al., J. Appl. Phys. 122, 244506 (2017)].

Theoretical analysis for AlGaN avalanche photodiodes with mesa and field plate structure**Project supported by the Natural Science Research Project of Anhui University, China (Grant No. KJ2019A0644), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 61634002 and 61804089), the Natural Science Alliance Foundation, China (Grant No. U1830109), the Natural Science Foundation of Anhui Province, China (Grant No. 1708085MF149), the Chuzhou

To suppress the electric field crowding at sidewall and improve the detection sensitivity of the AlGaN separate absorption and multiplication (SAM) avalanche photodiodes (APDs), we propose the new AlGaN APDs structure combining a large-area mesa with a field plate (FP). The simulated results show that the proposed AlGaN APDs exhibit a significant increase in avalanche gain, about two orders of magnitude, compared to their counterparts without FP structure, which is attributed to the suppression of electric field crowding at sidewall of multiplication layer and the reduction of the maximum electric field at the p-type GaN sidewall in p–n depletion region. Meanwhile, the APDs can produce an obviously enhanced photocurrent due to the increase in cross sectional area of multiplication region.

Reliability Scaling of Nanoscale Avalanche Photodiodes in High-Speed Optical Communication

In the present era of big data and 5G wireless, both microelectronic and photonic components are indispensable building blocks. For microelectronics, device miniaturization has been following Moore&amp;rsquo;s law to attain higher speed and greater functionality. For photonics, similar device scaling is also evolving in both lasers and photodiodes to transmit high data rates of 25 Gb/s and beyond. However, such device miniaturization may impose challenges such as reliability and fabrication that require careful scientific and engineering studies. In particular, the reliability understanding of photonic device scaling is fairly rudimentary with only scattered reports. In this paper, we study the device and reliability scaling of nanoscale avalanche photodiodes (APDs). The device miniaturization of APDs mainly involves thickness reduction in the charge control and multiplication layers. The layer reduction however causes an increase in breakdown field that may adversely affect reliability in several aspects such as electrical/optical overload and electrostatic discharge (ESD). We present a new reliability degradation model of APDs based on the breakdown field and correlate it with the experimental data. Empirical reliability equations are instituted to establish quantitative formulation. We discuss the overload and ESD performances as a function of breakdown field for both planar-type and mesa-type APD structures.

Comparative Simulation of Thermal Noise Effects for Photodetectors on Performance of Long-Haul DWDM Optical Networks

Abstract Long-haul 16-channel dense-wavelength division multiplexing networks employing two different avalanche photodiode (APD) structures (Si and InGaAs) and positive-intrinsic-negative (PIN) photodetectors are simulated and compared under thermal noise effects for different fiber lengths. The effect of thermal noise level on the transmission quality with a variation of amplifying section length, number of amplifying sections and channel speed is discussed. The impact of thermal noise on the system performance is analyzed by varying input power from −5dBm to 20dBm for both 25 km and 50 km amplifying section at 100 km fiber length. The performance is evaluated for both 5 Gb/s and 10 Gb/s data rates over transmission distances up to 500 km. A comprehensive comparison is developed based on signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), quality factor (Q-factor) and bit error rate (BER). It is found that both APD structures achieve superior performance up to distance of 350 km comparing to PIN photodetectors for 50 km amplifying section. The system provides optimum performance at input power P in = 10dBm in case of 50 km amplifying section, but then afterwards, the performance is degraded rapidly due to nonlinearities. The results revealed that the worst performance scenario is at 10–18 W/Hz thermal noise in terms of higher BER and lower Q-factor. Finally, the desirable BER of 10–12 is achieved at Q-factor of 6.78 and SNR of 23 dB.

Monte Carlo simulation of avalanche noise characteristics of type II InAs/GaSb superlattice avalanche photodiodes

A Monte Carlo model, which takes account of the stochastic nature of carrier scattering during transportation, including impact ionization, is presented here. To verify the model, it is used to simulate the field dependent drift velocity of electrons transporting in the bulk InAs material. The results are consistent with the experimental data. Then, the model is applied to type II InAs/GaSb superlattice (SL) avalanche photodiode (APD) structure and the avalanche noise characteristics at 77 K is calculated for different wavelengths. Our results reveal that the long wavelength (LW) APD has a higher excess noise factor (F) than the mid wavelength (MW) counterpart, probably due to the fact that holes in the LW SLs are easier to cause the impact ionization. Generally, the F decreases with increasing the device length, except that the device length is very thin for a LW APD.

Multiple Quantum Barrier Nano-avalanche Photodiodes - Part III: Time and Frequency Responses

Background: The time and frequency responses of Multiple Quantum Barrier (MQB) nano-scale Avalanche Photodiodes (APDs) based on Si~3C-SiC material system have been investigated in this final part. Methods: A very narrow rectangular pulse of pulse-width of 0.4 ps has been used as the input optical pulse having 850 nm wavelength incidents on the p+-side of the MQB APD structures and corresponding current responses have been calculated by using a simulation method developed by the authors. Results: Finally the frequency responses of the devices are obtained via the Fourier transform of the corresponding pulse current responses in time domain. Conclusion: Simulation results show that MQB nano-APDs possess significantly faster time response and wider frequency response as compared to the flat Si nano-APDs under similar operating conditions.

Temperature effects on characteristics and performance of near-infrared wide bandwidth for different avalanche photodiodes structures

In this paper, the influences of thermal and spectral variations on various structures of avalanche photodiodes (APDs) have been deeply investigated. The characteristics and performance of Silicon (Si), Gallium Arsenide (GaAs) and Indium Gallium Arsenide (InGaAs) avalanche photodiodes have been evaluated under effects of different temperature degrees. The impacts of different temperature levels on the band gap energy, detector responsivity, noise equivalent power (NEP), cut-off wavelength, dark current and the photocurrent are studied and analyzed in details. The signal to noise ratio (SNR) and Bit Error Rate (BER) of these APDs are also computed and measured under the influences of different temperature levels and spectral variations. The aim of this paper is to determine the most efficient avalanche photodiode achieving the best performance according to the maximum SNR and minimum BER at high temperature environments. The analysis of the proposed model is performed by MATLAB. It was found that the experimental measured results endorse the analytical computed results. Further, it was observed that the APD (InGaAs) provides performance better than other APD structures in terms of larger SNR and less BER at higher temperature levels. Also, the temperature has a slight effect on the performance of APD (GaAs). So, it is seemed to be stable more than other APD structures and recommended to be used in warm environments and for high temperature applications.

Enhanced front-illuminated p-i-p-i-n GaN/AlGaN ultraviolet avalanche photodiodes

We proposed an improved front-illuminated GaN/AlGaN separate absorption and multiplication (SAM) ultraviolet avalanche photodiode (APD) based on physical analysis and device simulations. By inserting an Al0.2Ga0.8N p-type layer into the p-i-p-i-n APD structure, a built-in electric field resulted from polarization effect will be introduced to facilitate the transport of electrons from absorption layer to multiplication region. The enhanced heterostructure APD presents significantly higher multiplication gain compared with the homogeneous one. Moreover, the doping concentration and thickness of the interlayer were optimized according to device performances, because the interlay has important effects on the electric field distribution and energy-band profile of the front-illuminated SAM APD.

Modeling a novel InP/InGaAs avalanche photodiode structure: Reducing the excess noise factor

Abstract We proposed one structure of InP/In 0.53 Ga 0.47 As avalanche photodiode (APD) with a multi-layer multiplication which is created by inserting a p-type layer into a conventional lightly doped multiplication region. It is shown that the performance of the excess noise factor F is improved compared to the conventional APD structure. A carrier multiplication model, incorporating the dead space effect, is demonstrated. Moreover, we used the model with generation–recombination process and surface leakage current to calculate the excess noise factor F of the multi-layer multiplication APD and conventional APD structure, respectively.

High-Speed In0.52Al0.48As Based Avalanche Photodiode With Top-Illuminated Design for 100 Gb/s ER-4 System

High-speed top-illuminated avalanche photodiodes (APDs) with large diameters (25 μ m) are demonstrated for the application of 4-channels 100 Gb/s data rate. They achieve a bandwidth of 17 GHz at low-gain (MG = 6.2; 3.6 A/W) and large-gain bandwidth (responsivity bandwidth) product (410 GHz (237.8 GHz-A/W); 55% external efficiency at the unit gain) while maintaining invariant high speed (14 GHz) under high power (0.5 mW) and 0.9 Vbr operations. By packaging the demonstrated APD with a 25 Gb/s transimpedance amplifier in a 100 Gb/s ROSA package, a good sensitivity of around –20.6 dBm optical modulation amplitude (OMA) at the data rate of 25.78 Gb/s has been successfully demonstrated. The achieved sensitivity not only meets the required receiver sensitivity (–18.5 dBm OMA) in 100 GbE-ER-4 Lite (40 km) system, it is also comparable with that of the high-performance 100 Gb/s ROSA incorporated with the back-side illuminated APD design. Overall, our novel APD structure can eliminate the costly flip-chip bonding package in the 100 Gb/s ROSA without sacrificing its sensitivity performance.

An Improved Nonlocal History-Dependent Model for Gain and Noise in Avalanche Photodiodes Based on Energy Balance Equation

We present a nonlocal history-dependent model for impact ionization gain and noise in avalanche photodiodes (APDs) especially suited for staircase APDs. The model uses a simple energy balance equation to define effective electric fields valid also in the presence of band discontinuities which are then used to express the ionization coefficients. The model parameters have been calibrated against literature data for gain and noise in GaAs and Al x Ga1− x As $({x} = {0.2}, {0.6}, {0.8})$ p-i-n diodes. Application to the experimental data for gain and noise in heterojunction and staircase separate absorption and multiplication APDs is reported to demonstrate the ability of the model in describing complex APD structures. It is found that, in spite of conduction band discontinuities being much larger than valence band ones, hole impact ionization contributes a significant degradation of the noise metrics in GaAs/AlGaAs staircase APDs. These nontrivial insights demonstrate the usefulness of the model to steer device design and optimization.