High performance of a SOI-based lateral PIN photodiode using SiGe/Si multilayer quantum well

摘要

Silicon-on-insulator (SOI) based SiGe quantum well infrared pin photodiode has the potential of being a serious candidate for applications in sensing applications as well as in optical fiber communications. The present work investigates the performance of a virtual lateral PIN photodiode with a SiGe/Si multi-quantum well structure. In this paper, 5 periods of stacked SiGe quantum wells were grown on Si(100). A lateral PIN photodiode consisting of the SiGe/Si multi-quantum well layers as the active absorption layer with intensity response in the 700–1600 nm wavelength range was demonstrated. The results obtained for responsivity, total quantum efficiency and frequency response were 0.89 A/W, 71% and 21 GHz respectively for design parameters of intrinsic region length of 6 μm, photoabsorption layer thickness of 50 μm, incident optical power of 1 mW/cm2 and bias voltage of 3 V. As a conclusion, the SiGe/Si multi-quantum well solution in achieving the desired high performance photodiode was achieved.