Photodiode Dark Current Research Articles

Bridging the gap between surface physics and photonics.

Use and performance criteria of photonic devices increase in various application areas such as information and communication, lighting, and photovoltaics. In many current and future photonic devices, surfaces of a semiconductor crystal are a weak part causing significant photo-electric losses and malfunctions in applications. These surface challenges, many of which arise from material defects at semiconductor surfaces, include signal attenuation in waveguides, light absorption in light emitting diodes, non-radiative recombination of carriers in solar cells, leakage (dark) current of photodiodes, and light reflection at solar cell interfaces for instance. To reduce harmful surface effects, the optical and electrical passivation of devices has been developed for several decades, especially with the methods of semiconductor technology. Because atomic scale control and knowledge of surface-related phenomena have become relevant to increase the performance of different devices, it might be useful to enhance the bridging of surface physics to photonics. Toward that target, we review some evolving research subjects with open questions and possible solutions, which hopefully provide example connecting points between photonic device passivation and surface physics. One question is related to the properties of the wet chemically cleaned semiconductor surfaces which are typically utilized in device manufacturing processes, but which appear to be different from crystalline surfaces studied in ultrahigh vacuum by physicists. In devices, a defective semiconductor surface often lies at an embedded interface formed by a thin metal or insulator film grown on the semiconductor crystal, which makes the measurements of its atomic and electronic structures difficult. To understand these interface properties, it is essential to combine quantum mechanical simulation methods. This review also covers metal-semiconductor interfaces which are included in most photonic devices to transmit electric carriers to the semiconductor structure. Low-resistive and passivated contacts with an ultrathin tunneling barrier are an emergent solution to control electrical losses in photonic devices.

High-power InAlAs/InGaAs Schottky barrier photodiodes for analog microwave signal transmission

The design, manufacturing and DC and microwave characterization of high-power Schottky barrier InAlAs/InGaAs back-illuminated mesa structure photodiodes are presented. The photodiodes with 10 and 15 μm mesa diameters operate at ≥40 and 28 GHz, respectively, have the output RF power as high as 58 mW at a frequency of 20 GHz, the DC responsivity of up to 1.08 A/W depending on the absorbing layer thickness, and a photodiode dark current as low as 0.04 nA. We show that these photodiodes provide an advantage in the amplitude-to-phase conversion factor which makes them suitable for use in high-speed analog transmission lines with stringent requirements for phase noise.

Ultralow dark current in near-infrared perovskite photodiodes by reducing charge injection and interfacial charge generation

Metal halide perovskite photodiodes (PPDs) offer high responsivity and broad spectral sensitivity, making them attractive for low-cost visible and near-infrared sensing. A significant challenge in achieving high detectivity in PPDs is lowering the dark current density (JD) and noise current (in). This is commonly accomplished using charge-blocking layers to reduce charge injection. By analyzing the temperature dependence of JD for lead-tin based PPDs with different bandgaps and electron-blocking layers (EBL), we demonstrate that while EBLs eliminate electron injection, they facilitate undesired thermal charge generation at the EBL-perovskite interface. The interfacial energy offset between the EBL and the perovskite determines the magnitude and activation energy of JD. By increasing this offset we realized a PPD with ultralow JD and in of 5 × 10−8 mA cm−2 and 2 × 10−14 A Hz−1/2, respectively, and wavelength sensitivity up to 1050 nm, establishing a new design principle to maximize detectivity in perovskite photodiodes.

300°C Optical Communications

Abstract A high temperature optical link capable of multi-megabits per second data rates at 300°C is presented. The system utilizes wide bandgap optical sources and detectors to achieve extreme temperature operation. Testing was conducted at multiple temperatures between room temperature and 325°C and at multiple light source currents. Light coupling into and out of a UV capable optical fiber was evaluated, and a model was created utilizing the test data of the photodiode dark current and the fiber optic cable insertion loss and attenuation and assess optical communications capability to 325°C and beyond.

The Study of Dark Currents in HgCdTe Heterostructure Photodiodes

Dark current is the main factor that influences photodiode performance. It should be minimal to reduce noise and ensure a high level of photoelectric parameters. In order to identify the predominant causes of generation–recombination in photodiodes based on a mercury–cadmium–tellurium (MCT) ternary compound in the given voltage range, a calculation model is proposed for dark currents caused by fundamental and other current mechanisms. The components of dark current in photodiodes based on MCT heterostructures grown by molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) and liquid-phase epitaxy (LPE) methods are determined in the reverse bias voltages range from 0 to 40 mV. In the range from 0 to 20 mV, these characteristics are reduced to the diffusion component. When the reverse bias voltage exceeds 30 mV, an increase in the Shockley–Read–Hall (SRH) generation–recombination current and tunneling current through trap levels in the band gap is observed.

Advanced architecture ofCdHgTe photodiode for detection of weak infrared radiation

The dark currents of CdHgTe photodiodes based on the advanced architecture, which isused inthreshold FPAfordetection ofweak infrared radiation,have been analyzed. Theopposite conductivity regions areformedof in wide-gap layers, thatreducesthe contribution of theSRHgeneration-recombination currents of to the total dark current.By using various compositions layers with transition sublayers reducing surface recombination at the interfaces, one canre-duce the surface mechanismcontributionto the total dark current of the photodiode. Finally, due to the correct choice of the absorption layer composition and wide-gap layer parameters, dark current in the space charge region ismuch lower than аdiffusion currentcausing by Auger mechanismin the absorption region for a given cutoff wavelength.

Random Telegraph Noises from the Source Follower, the Photodiode Dark Current, and the Gate-Induced Sense Node Leakage in CMOS Image Sensors.

In this paper we present a systematic approach to sort out different types of random telegraph noises (RTN) in CMOS image sensors (CIS) by examining their dependencies on the transfer gate off-voltage, the reset gate off-voltage, the photodiode integration time, and the sense node charge retention time. Besides the well-known source follower RTN, we have identified the RTN caused by varying photodiode dark current, transfer-gate and reset-gate induced sense node leakage. These four types of RTN and the dark signal shot noises dominate the noise distribution tails of CIS and non-CIS chips under test, either with or without X-ray irradiation. The effect of correlated multiple sampling (CMS) on noise reduction is studied and a theoretical model is developed to account for the measurement results.

A 25 micron-thin microscope for imaging upconverting nanoparticles with NIR-I and NIR-II illumination.

Rationale: Intraoperative visualization in small surgical cavities and hard-to-access areas are essential requirements for modern, minimally invasive surgeries and demand significant miniaturization. However, current optical imagers require multiple hard-to-miniaturize components including lenses, filters and optical fibers. These components restrict both the form-factor and maneuverability of these imagers, and imagers largely remain stand-alone devices with centimeter-scale dimensions.Methods: We have engineered INSITE (Immunotargeted Nanoparticle Single-Chip Imaging Technology), which integrates the unique optical properties of lanthanide-based alloyed upconverting nanoparticles (aUCNPs) with the time-resolved imaging of a 25-micron thin CMOS-based (complementary metal oxide semiconductor) imager. We have synthesized core/shell aUCNPs of different compositions and imaged their visible emission with INSITE under either NIR-I and NIR-II photoexcitation. We characterized aUCNP imaging with INSITE across both varying aUCNP composition and 980 nm and 1550 nm excitation wavelengths. To demonstrate clinical experimental validity, we also conducted an intratumoral injection into LNCaP prostate tumors in a male nude mouse that was subsequently excised and imaged with INSITE.Results: Under the low illumination fluences compatible with live animal imaging, we measure aUCNP radiative lifetimes of 600 μs - 1.3 ms, which provides strong signal for time-resolved INSITE imaging. Core/shell NaEr0.6Yb0.4F4 aUCNPs show the highest INSITE signal when illuminated at either 980 nm or 1550 nm, with signal from NIR-I excitation about an order of magnitude brighter than from NIR-II excitation. The 55 μm spatial resolution achievable with this approach is demonstrated through imaging of aUCNPs in PDMS (polydimethylsiloxane) micro-wells, showing resolution of micrometer-scale targets with single-pixel precision. INSITE imaging of intratumoral NaEr0.8Yb0.2F4 aUCNPs shows a signal-to-background ratio of 9, limited only by photodiode dark current and electronic noise.Conclusion: This work demonstrates INSITE imaging of aUCNPs in tumors, achieving an imaging platform that is thinned to just a 25 μm-thin, planar form-factor, with both NIR-I and NIR-II excitation. Based on a highly paralleled array structure INSITE is scalable, enabling direct coupling with a wide array of surgical and robotic tools for seamless integration with tissue actuation, resection or ablation.

Shockley–Read–Hall Lifetime Study and Implication in HgCdTe Photodiodes for IR Detection

The Shockley–Read–Hall (SRH) mechanism might be a limiting factor of an infrared (IR) photodiode's dark current. This limitation is twofold. SRH generation might occur in the depletion region of the photodiode. In that case, the corresponding current is usually limiting the low-temperature dark current. Moreover, SRH generation might also occur in the diffusion volume, close to the space charge region, resulting in an increase of the diffusion dark current, usually limiting the high-temperature behavior of the photodiode. Hence, the determination of the SRH lifetime of IR materials is of first importance and has to be measured (or at least estimated) to define upcoming trends in future high-performance IR detectors. During the last few years, a lot of papers have been published about SRH lifetime in III–V materials (InSb, superlattices, InAsSb) and a few other communications have been more focused on comparing different material systems including III–V and II–VI materials. Those latter communications proposed very long SRH lifetimes (longer than ms) for HgCdTe, instead of the classical 10–100 μs usually admitted until now. This paper aims at investigating this SRH lifetime in HgCdTe based on experimental measurements carried out at the Laboratoire d’electronique des technologies de l’information (LETI) on HgCdTe grown in-house. Direct lifetime measurement (photoconductive or photoluminescence decay) as well as indirect estimations from photodiode dark currents are discussed in order to clarify this question of SRH lifetime and its consequences in upcoming advanced IR detection structures. In the end, it appeared that except for p/n extrinsic heterojunctions (for which the narrow gap depleted volume is not well known), most of the devices tested seemed limited by SRH lifetimes in the 10–100-μs range.

Фотоприемники с активной областью InGaAs и метаморфным буферным слоем InGaP, выращенные на подложках GaAs

AbstractThe results of studying the reverse dark currents of photodiodes for a wavelength of 1.06 μm grown on a GaAs substrate with the help of an InGaP metamorphic buffer layer are presented. The metalorganic chemical vapor epitaxy (MOCVD) growth technology of InGaP metamorphic buffer layers with a stepwise composition variation is developed. Photodiodes with a photosensitive area of 1 mm in diameter and radiation input through the substrate are fabricated. The photodiode dark current at room temperature and reverse bias of –3 V was 50 nA. It is assumed that the bulk component of the dark current is caused by the tunneling mechanism through the trap levels.

Temperature and Parasitic Photocurrent Effects in Dynamic Vision Sensors

The effect of temperature and parasitic photocurrent on event-based dynamic vision sensors (DVS) is important because of their application in uncontrolled robotic, automotive, and surveillance applications. This paper considers the temperature dependence of DVS threshold temporal contrast (TC), dark current, and background activity caused by junction leakage. New theory shows that if bias currents have a constant ratio, then ideally the DVS threshold TC is temperature independent, but the presence of temperature dependent junction leakage currents causes nonideal behavior at elevated temperature. Both measured photodiode dark current and leakage induced event activity follow Arhenius activation. This paper also defines a new metric for parasitic photocurrent quantum efficiency and measures the sensitivity of DVS pixels to parasitic photocurrent.

InAs/GaSb超晶格中波红外二极管的阳极硫化

InAs(8ML)/GaSb(8ML)superlattice with p-i-n structure was grown on GaSb substrates by molecular beam epitaxy.The mid-wavelength infrared photodiodes with different area mesa was fabricated through standard photolithography,wet chemical etching and sputtered metal contacts.The passivation was finished by the anode sulphur technique and sputtered ZnS thin film.Compared with(NH4)2S solution treatment,the surface leackage currents density decreased three orders of magnitude and the R0Aincreased up to 103 times.The zero-bias resistance R0was measured up to 106 ohms.The surface leakage current was not major dark current in photodiodes after the anode sulfur passivation.Capacitance-voltage relation showed that the background concentration in i layer was about 4~5×1014 cm-3.The property of the photodiode appeared no degradation after exposured in air for one month.It verified that anode sulphur passivation is an easy and effective technique.

InAs/GaSb超晶格中波红外二极管的阳极硫化

InAs(8ML)/GaSb(8ML)superlattice with p-i-n structure was grown on GaSb substrates by molecular beam epitaxy.The mid-wavelength infrared photodiodes with different area mesa was fabricated through standard photolithography,wet chemical etching and sputtered metal contacts.The passivation was finished by the anode sulphur technique and sputtered ZnS thin film.Compared with(NH4)2S solution treatment,the surface leackage currents density decreased three orders of magnitude and the R0Aincreased up to 103 times.The zero-bias resistance R0was measured up to 106 ohms.The surface leakage current was not major dark current in photodiodes after the anode sulfur passivation.Capacitance-voltage relation showed that the background concentration in i layer was about 4~5×1014 cm-3.The property of the photodiode appeared no degradation after exposured in air for one month.It verified that anode sulphur passivation is an easy and effective technique.

Proton Monitor Las Dos Torres: First Intercomparison of In-Orbit Results

A new proton monitor on board NANOSAT-1B—Las Dos Torres (translated: The Two Towers)—and its preliminary results after two years in orbit and its intercomparison to a RadFET and to trapped proton models are presented. This satellite was fully developed by INTA (National Institute of Aerospace Technology, Spain) and was launched on July 29, 2009. The instrument includes two stacks of radiation-sensing elements: the “dark” and “light” towers. The displacement damage was measured, both through the increase of a photodiode dark current (“dark tower”) and the decrease of the photocurrent signal in a photodiode optically linked to light emitting diodes (“light tower”). The instrument was also designed to monitor the ionization current of the photodiodes and the variations in the proton flux in the South Atlantic Anomaly.

Determining the normal and lateral dark current components in n-p photodiodes based on p-Cd x Hg1 − x Te heteroepitaxial structures with x = 0.22

The effect of an external magnetic field on the dark current of photodiodes in far-IR matrix photodetector arrays fabricated by boron ion implantation into heteroepitaxial cadmium mercury telluride (CMT) layers has been studied. A new method is proposed for separately determining the lateral and normal dark current components in CMT photodiodes of the matrix photodetectors. It is established that the dark current of these photodiodes (at 77 K) with dimensions comparable with the minority carrier diffusion length is determined primarily by the lateral component.

Comparative analysis of dark current between SiNx and polyimide surface passivation of an avalanche photodiode based on GaAs

In this paper, we present the effects of different surface passivation types, one with SiNx and the other with polyimide (PI), on the dark (leakage) current of a GaAs-based avalanche photodiode. We identified that the reverse dark current originates from the surface, and not from the bulk, showing the nearly linear dependence on perimeters of active-mesa (A-M) up to 90% of breakdown voltage (Vbr). From the theoretical results, total dark current consists of generation–recombination (G–R), shunt and tunneling components from a surface and the avalanche gain component from a bulk for both passivation types. Although the bulk component of avalanche gain⋅bulk current generates the breakdown process, it appears only near Vbr (12.7 V) because of a very small bulk current of a few fA in theory. For a surface current, SiNx passivation has values two to eight times lower than PI passivation. The different behaviors of surface current between passivation types could be theoretically explained by quantitative description of the current components.

High responsivity of GaN p-i-n photodiode by using low-temperature interlayer

Gallium nitride p-i-n ultraviolet photodiodes with low-temperature (LT)-GaN interlayer have been fabricated. It was found that the dark current of photodiode with LT-GaN interlayer is as small as 143pA at 5V reverse bias. It was also found that the responsivity of the photodiode with LT-GaN interlayer can be enhanced at a small electric field (∼0.4MV∕cm) due to the carrier multiplication effect. The UV photocurrent gain of 13 and large ionization coefficient (α=3.1×105cm−1) were also observed in the detector with LT-GaN interlayer. Furthermore, we can achieve a large peak responsivity of 2.27A∕W from the photodiode with LT-GaN interlayer.

Ge on Si Photodiodes for Si CMOS Monolithic Optical Receivers

We report a Ge growth technique on Si using thin SiGe buffer layers and also discuss photodiodes fabricated on the Ge for Si CMOS monolithic optical receiver applications. The effectiveness of thin SiGe buffer layers in terminating threading dislocations and reducing photodiode dark current for Ge epitaxially grown on Si (001) has been investigated for Ge photodiodes. The dark current of Ge on Si photodiodes can be reduced by over an order of magnitude by incorporating two different composition SiGe buffer layers. A backside- illuminated photodetector has been fabricated with the dark current as low as 3.6 mA/cm2 at 1 V reverse bias. To improve the speed of the photodiode, a device with thinner SiGe buffer layers was demonstrated and achieved 21.5 GHz bandwidth at 1.31 mm, resulting in a record high efficiency-bandwidth product of 12.9 GHz.

Effectiveness of SiGe Buffer Layers in Reducing Dark Currents of Ge-on-Si Photodetectors

The effectiveness of thin SiGe buffer layers in terminating threading dislocations and reducing photodiode dark current for Ge epitaxially grown on Si (001) has been investigated. The structural morphology of the films was studied by atomic force microscopy and transmission electron microscopy. The dark current of Ge on Si photodiodes can be reduced by over an order of magnitude by incorporating two different composition SiGe buffer layers. The origin of dark current and the effectiveness of thermal annealing the SiGe layers were also studied

Optimal design of CMOS pseudoactive pixel sensor (PAPS) structure for low-dark-current and large-array-size imager applications

In this paper, a pixel structure called the optimal pseudoactive pixel sensor (OPAPS) is proposed and analyzed for the applications of CMOS imagers. The shared zero-biased-buffer in the pixel is used to suppress both dark current of photodiode and leakage current of pixel switches by keeping both biases of photodiode and parasitic pn junctions in the pixel bus at zero voltage or near zero voltage. The factor of photocurrent-to-dark-current ratio per pixel area (PDRPA) is defined to characterize the performance of the OPAPS structure. It is found that a zero-biased-buffer shared by four pixels can achieve the highest PDRPA. In addition, the column sampling circuits and output correlated double sampling circuits are also used to suppress fixed-pattern noise, clock feedthrough noise, and channel charge injection. An experimental chip of the proposed OPAPS CMOS imager with the format of 352/spl times/288 (CIF) has been designed and fabricated by using 0.25-/spl mu/m single-poly-five-level-metal (1P5M) N-well CMOS process. In the fabricated CMOS imager, one shared zero-biased-buffer is used for four pixels where the PDRPA is equal to 47.29 /spl mu/m/sup -2/. The fabricated OPAPS CMOS imager has a pixel size of 8.2/spl times/.2 /spl mu/m, fill factor of 42%, and chip size of 3630/spl times/3390 /spl mu/m. Moreover, the measured maximum frame rate is 30 frames/s and the dark current is 82 pA/cm/sup 2/. Additionally, the measured optical dynamic range is 65 dB. It is found that the proposed OPAPS structure has lower dark current and higher optical dynamic range as compared with the active pixel sensor (APS) and the conventional passive pixel sensor (PPS). Thus, the proposed OPAPS structure has high potential for the applications of high-quality and large-array-size CMOS imagers.