Integrated PIN Photodiode Research Articles

Ultra-Sensitive PIN-Photodiode Receiver

A monolithically integrated receiver consisting of a low-capacitance PIN photodiode and a photo-charge integrating amplifier in 0.18- <italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">μ</i> m CMOS is introduced launching a new class of ultra-sensitive optical receivers. The integrated PIN photodiode has a junction capacitance of 1.5 fF at a light-sensitive diameter of 30 <italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">μ</i> m, a responsivity of 0.39 A/W at 635 nm, and rise/fall times of 0.73/0.92 ns at a reverse bias of 20 V. The common-source amplifier integrates the photo-charges on the smallest possible integration capacitor, which is a gate-drain overlap capacitance. The data bits are reconstructed by double sampling. In such a way, the sensitivity of SPAD receivers is achieved, however without using any impact ionization. At 50 Mb/s, a sensitivity of −56.4 dBm for a bit error ratio (BER) of 2 × 10 <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">−3</sup> is obtained using a wavelength of 635 nm.

Fully integrated wide dynamic range optical receiver for near infrared spectroscopy

This paper presents a low power and wide dynamic range optical receiver dedicated to the frequency domain near infrared spectroscopy (FD-NIRS). The proposed optical receiver is fabricated using a 0.18 μm CMOS technology with a 0.5 mm2 integrated PIN photodiode (PD). This large area of the PD is necessary to collect a sufficient amount of the weak optical power which is reflected from the human scalp. Moreover, an automatic gain control (AGC) is used to account for the large individual variations and to enable connecting different inter-optodes separations to the same amplifier chain. This adopted AGC extends the maximum overloading input photocurrent of the optical receiver to 6.4 μApp resulting in a 17.04 dB dynamic range extension and a total dynamic range of 50.1 dB. The chip consumes 2.35 mW of power, has an integrated input referred noise current of 20 nArms, a maximum gain of 109.6 dBΩ, and a 10.7 MHz bandwidth.

Synchronous OEIC Integrating Receiver for Optically Reconfigurable Gate Arrays.

A monolithically integrated optoelectronic receiver with a low-capacitance on-chip pin photodiode is presented. The receiver is fabricated in a 0.35 μm opto-CMOS process fed at 3.3 V and due to the highly effective integrated pin photodiode it operates at μW. A regenerative latch acting as a sense amplifier leads in addition to a low electrical power consumption. At 400 Mbit/s, sensitivities of −26.0 dBm and −25.5 dBm are achieved, respectively, for λ = 635 nm and λ = 675 nm (BER = 10−9 ) with an energy efficiency of 2 pJ/bit.

45-channel monolithically integrated, high-temperature capable optical receiver with a total data rate of 140 Gbit / s

A monolithically integrated optical receiver in 0.6 μm bipolar complementary metal oxide semiconductor (BiCMOS) technology with 45 channels, each working at a data rate of 3.125 Gbit/s, is described. The optical receiver uses integrated pin photodiodes with a diameter of 90 μm. This parallel optical silicon receiver is capable of operating at 100°C. The parallel optical receiver consumes less than 950 mW in total and each of its channels achieve an optical sensitivity of −17.5 dBm at 850 nm wavelength and a bit error ratio of 10−9.

Dual-lock-in sensor IC with integrated PIN photodetectors

Within this work a monolithically integrated low-power dual-lock-in amplifier (LIA) with integrated photodiodes is presented. This structure as a whole defines an opto-sensitive single-pixel sensor, being fabricated in a 0.35 µm 1P4M CMOS process with integrated PIN photodiodes. Since two correlators are exploited, the sensor is able to detect the modulated optical signal in the frequency domain, as well as its phase, which can be used in numerous applications. Among the others, the time-of-flight and interferometry based distance measurement system can benefit from this structure. The single pixel occupies an active area of 120 × 100 µm2 at 58 % fill factor. The measurement results show that a dynamic range of 27 dB could be achieved at a modulation frequency of 10 MHz. While the bandwidth of the LIA is adjustable, a signal can be detected up to a modulation frequency of 35 MHz and beyond dependent on the received optical power.

Indium phosphide-based monolithically integrated PIN waveguide photodiode readout for resonant cantilever sensors

An integrated photodiode displacement readout scheme for a microelectromechanical cantilever waveguide resonator sensing platform is presented. III-V semiconductors are used to enable the monolithic integration of passive waveguides with active optical components. This work builds upon previously demonstrated results by measuring the displacement of cantilever waveguide resonators with on-chip waveguide PIN photodiodes. The on-chip integration of the readout provides an additional 70% improvement in mass sensitivity compared to off-chip photodetector designs due to measurement stability and minimized coupling loss. In addition to increased measurement stability, reduced packaging complexity is achieved due to the simplicity of the readout design. We have fabricated cantilever waveguides with integrated photodetectors and experimentally characterized these cantilever sensors with monolithically integrated PIN photodiodes.

Optimization of Photodiode Bandwidth Employing Peak Distortion Analysis

This paper addresses the systematic approach to optimize series inductance in the inductively peaked pin photodiode for high speed operation beyond 100 Gb/s. For this end, peak distortion analysis is introduced in addition to group delay dispersion technique. Through analytical analysis and comprehensive numerical simulations, inductance values are calculated to optimize vertical eye-opening and signal-to-noise ratio. For verification, an optical waveguide integrated pin photodiode with optimized inductance is fabricated and measured. Using the optical pulse measurement setup, its pulse response is measured, and a full-width at half maximum of 7.34 ps is obtained. The fabricated module is tested using 107 Gb/s return-to-zero signal and shows excellent eye-opening.

Integrated optical receiver for indoor wireless gigabit communication

A receiver with a monolithically integrated PIN photodiode in 0.5 μm BiCMOS technology has been developed for establishing an indoor 1.25 Gb/s optical wireless communication over a distance of 3.2 m using 180 μW of optical power.

A 122 TΩ Hz transimpedance bandwidth product BiCMOS optical sensor front-end with a 54.7 dB voltage-controlled photo-sensitivity range

An optical sensor front-end with integrated PIN photodiode in 0.6 μm BiCMOS technology intended for universal optical storage operation is presented. It is based on a mixed current conveyor and voltage amplifiers topology avoiding stability problems. The transimpedance is continuously variable and directly proportional to a voltage-controlled resistance. Another voltage-controlled resistor within a variable-gain voltage amplifier increases the photo-sensitivity range. A fixed-gain voltage amplifier and a current biasing of the current conveyor enable frequency bandwidth enhancement leading to a large transimpedance bandwidth product. A linearity error smaller than 2.8%, a photo-sensitivity range of 541 (54.7 dB) with the largest photo-sensitivity of 2468 mV/μW, an offset voltage <13.7 mV, a frequency bandwidth up to 277 MHz, a slew rate up to 377 V/μs, a transimpedance bandwidth product up to 122 TΩ Hz, and a maximum power consumption of <4.3 mW are achieved.

BiCMOS optical receiver with 54.7 dB voltage-controlled sensitivity range

An optical receiver with an integrated pin photodiode in 0.6 µm BiCMOS technology is presented. The transimpedance is continuously voltage-controlled. A linearity error smaller than 2.8%, a sensitivity range of 541 (54.7 dB), an offset voltage less than 13.7 mV, a bandwidth up to 277 MHz, a power consumption less than 4.3 mW, and a transimpedance bandwidth product up to 166 TΩHz, are achieved.

220-MHz monolithically integrated optical sensor with large-area integrated PIN photodiode

We propose a PIN photodiode integrated in a BiCMOS process which combines a quantum efficiency of nearly 100% for red light, fast response times, and a low junction capacitance. Bandwidths of 720 MHz at 660 nm and 683 MHz at 850 nm are achieved for this PIN photodiode. It allows the design of fast optoelectronic integrated circuits for many advanced applications in optical sensing, optical storage systems, and optical data transmission for optical wavelengths ranging at least from 660 to 850 nm. Because of the low photodiode capacitance of 0.01 fF//spl mu/m/sup 2/, it is possible to achieve high bandwidths, even with large photodetector areas. The proposed optical receiver employing a PIN photodiode with a diameter of 500 /spl mu/m and a capacitance of only 2.2 pF attains a -3-dB bandwidth of 220 MHz, which corresponds to a maximum nonreturn-to-zero data rate of 300 Mbit/s.

Optical receiver IC for CD/DVD/blue-laser application

In this paper, an optoelectronic receiver IC for CD, DVD, and Blue-Laser optical data storage applications is presented. The IC was developed in a 0.5-/spl mu/m BiCMOS technology with integrated PIN photodiodes. It includes a new architecture of high-speed and low-noise variable gain transimpedance amplifiers witch current preamplifier input. The amplifier transimpedance gain is programmable over a gain range of 130 /spl Omega/ to 270 k/spl Omega/ by a serial interface. The amplifier small-signal bandwidth is 260 MHz for the highest gain, which gives a gain-bandwidth product of 70 THz/spl Omega/ and a sensitivity improvement by a factor of 2 compared to published OEICs. The amplifiers support a special write/clip mode which realizes a nonlinear gain reduction for high input signals. The output voltage buffers are 130-/spl Omega/ impedance matched for optimized data transmission over a flex cable. The impedance is generated by active-impedance synthesis to increase the output dynamic range.

A 5-Gb/s OEIC with voltage-up-converter

In this paper (based on our previous paper at ESSCIRC 2004, A 2.4 GHz-Bandwidth OEIC with Voltage-Up-Converter, but new results for 4 Gb/s and 5 Gb/s have been added), an optoelectronic integrated circuit (OEIC) with an integrated voltage-up-converter (VUC) to enhance the frequency response of an integrated pin photodiode is presented. With the VUC a voltage of 11 V is generated on the chip without any additional external components. Thus, for a single-supply environment of 5 V the bandwidth of the OEIC is increased from 1.5 to 2.4 GHz. For data rates of 1, 3, 4, and 5 Gb/s at a bit error rate of 10/sup -9/, sensitivities of -29.3, -24.3, -22.9, and -20.5 dBm, respectively, were measured at a wavelength of 660 nm. For the implementation of the OEIC a modified 0.6-/spl mu/m silicon BiCMOS technology with f/sub T/=25 GHz is used.

16×16 pixel silicon on sapphire CMOS digital pixel photosensor array

A report on a 16×16 pixel digital pixel photosensor array fabricated in silicon on sapphire CMOS technology is presented. The integrated current from integrated pin photodiodes is converted into a pulse density modulated address event stream at the pixel level. An arbitrated asynchronous interface is employed to output the digital data. The transparency of the sapphire substrate allows imaging from both the back and front side, opening possibilities for new and novel applications of CMOS photosensor arrays.

Development of an integrated high speed silicon PIN photodiode sensor

A silicon integrated PIN photodiode sensor, combined with a bipolar IC on same substrate (that is, a PIN photo integrated circuit sensor: PIN-PICS), was developed by employing a high resistive P/sup --/ epitaxial layer on a P/sup +/ substrate for creating a high speed and high optical responsivity PIN photodiode. We fabricated this device based on two special techniques: (1) the PIN photodiode is formed on a P/sup --//P/sup +/ substrate structure and isolated from bipolar components by the combination of a P/sup -/-well and a trench isolation, and (2) bipolar components are formed by the doubly diffused buried layer of the P/sup -/-well and the N/sup +/ collector wall. All of these components, such as npn and pnp transistors, were arranged within the lightly doped P/sup -/-well regions. From several kinds of trial samples, the following results were obtained. The PIN photodiode with 0.145 mm/sup 2/ active area indicated 680 MHz for cutoff frequency at 10 V bias with 830 mn radiation. In the case of 20 V bias, this value exceeded 1.5 GHz. This PIN-PICS was applied to a 10 Mbit/s burst mode compatible optical monolithic receiver and a transimpedance amplifier, and it has shown the expected results.< <ETX xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">&gt;</ETX>

Large-signal picosecond response of InGaAs/InP quantum well lasers with an intracavity loss modulator

Single and multiple quantum well laser diodes operating at 1.5 μm are fabricated incorporating an intracavity electroabsorptive loss modulator. Absorption in the diode laser cavity is modulated by a femtosecond dye laser used to generate picosecond electrical transients. Two types of electrical excitation are provided to the modulator: a pulse, using an integrated PIN photodiode and a step, using an integrated photoconductive switch. The full width at half maximum (FWHM) for 100% laser modulation is 53 ps. Direct excitation of the loss segment resulted in pulse widths of 38 ps FWHM and 100% modulation.

LED linearisation for video bandwidth transmission employing a monolithically integrated PIN-PD

Nonlinear distortion and frequency response for light-emitting diodes in analogue video transmission are greatly improved by using a wideband optoelectronic feedback loop employing monolithically integrated PIN photodiodes. Large monitoring efficiency of more than 2% makes it easy to realise this wideband and high-gain feedback loop.