Fabrication and performance characteristics of high-speed ion-implanted Si metal-semiconductor-metal photodetectors

摘要

We have fabricated high-speed Si metal-semiconductor-metal photodetectors using ↑(19)F↑(+) ion implantation in low-doped Si. Bandwidths in excess of 6 GHz have been obtained that represent more than an order-of-magnitude improvement over unimplanted counterparts. Measurements with short optical pulses show that the increase in bandwidth is due primarily to a shorter carrier lifetime in implanted devices. In the absence of implantation, the response under short optical pulse excitation has a long decay with-a rime constant of~0.35 ns, We carried out an optical fiber transmission experiment using a GaAs (λ~ 0.85 μm) laser source and the implanted Si photodetector.Error-free transmission (bit error rate < 10↑(-11) with good receiver sensitivity, was obtained at 2 Gbits/s. These results demonstrate that implanted Si can be used as a detector for short-wavelength fiber-optic communication systems for speeds to a few gigabits per second. Monolithic integration of this detector technology with conventional Si processing offers the potential for low-cost receiver designs.# 1997 Optical Society of America