152 IEEE PHOTONICS TECHNOLOGY LETTERS, VOL. 19, NO. 3, FEBRUARY 1, 2007
CMOS-Compatible All-Si High-Speed Waveguide
Photodiodes With High Responsivity in
Near-Infrared Communication Band
M. W. Geis, S. J. Spector, M. E. Grein, R. T. Schulein, J. U. Yoon, D. M. Lennon, S. Deneault, F. Gan,
F. X. Kaertner, and T. M. Lyszczarz
Abstract—Submicrometer silicon photodiode waveguides, fabri-
cated on silicon-on-insulator substrates, have photoresponse from
1270 to 1740 nm (0.8 AW at 1550 nm) and a 3-dB bandwidth
of 10 to 20 GHz. The p-i-n photodiode waveguide consists of an in-
trinsic waveguide 500 250 nm where the optical mode is confined
and two thin, 50-nm-thick, doped Si wings that extend 5 m out
from either side of the waveguide. The Si wings, which are doped
one p-type and the other n-type, make electric contact to the wave-
guide with minimal effect on the optical mode. The edges of the
wings are metalized to increase electrical conductivity. Ion implan-
tation of Si cm at 190 keV into the waveguide increases
the optical absorption from 2–3 dB cm to 200–100 dB cm
and causes the generation of a photocurrent when the waveguide is
illuminated with subbandgap radiation. The diodes are not dam-
aged by annealing to 450 C for 15 s or 300 C for 15 min. The
photoresponse and thermal stability is believed due to an oxygen
stabilized divacancy complex formed during ion implantation.
Index Terms—Integrated optoelectronics, near-infrared,
photodetectors, silicon (Si) optoelectronics, silicon (Si) waveguide.
I. INTRODUCTION
A
LTHOUGH the majority of electrical compu-
tation is performed using Si complementary
metal–oxide–semiconductor (CMOS) circuitry, infrared optical
communication components are typically composed of InGaAs
(photodetectors and lasers) or LiNbO (modulators), which
cannot be integrated with Si. Monolithically integrating these
optical components with Si CMOS circuitry would result
an electrooptic chip with significant increase in performance
and reduction in cost. Here we report on Si waveguide
photodetectors formed using the standard CMOS process of ion
implantation. These devices have a 10- to 20-GHz bandwidth,
internal responsivity, the ratio of the photocurrent to the
power in the waveguide, from 1270 to 1740 nm (0.8 AW
Manuscript received September 15, 2006; revised November 7, 2006. The
Lincoln Laboratory portion of this work was sponsored in part by the EPIC
Program of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and in part by
the Department of the Air Force under Air Force Contract FA8721-05-C-0002.
Opinions, interpretations, conclusions, and recommendations are those of the
authors and do not necessarily represent the views of the United States Govern-
ment.
M. W. Geis, S. J. Spector, M. E. Grein, R. T. Schulein, J. U. Yoon,
D. M. Lennon, S. Deneault, and T. M. Lyszczarz are with Lincoln Laboratory,
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Lexington, MA 02420-9108 USA
(e-mail: geis@ll.mit.edu).
F. Gan and F. X. Kaertner are with Massachusetts Institute of Technology,
Cambridge, MA 02139-4327 USA.
Color versions of one or more of the figures in this letter are available online
at http://ieeexplore.ieee.org.
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/LPT.2006.890109
Fig. 1. Waveguide photodiode. (a) Top-view optical micrograph of 0.25-mm
waveguide photodiode. (b) Schematic drawing of diode cross section. The wave-
guide is the silicon rib in the center of the sketch. All dimensions are in nanome-
ters unless otherwise labeled.
at 1550 nm), and leakage current of 0.4 A. Because Si is
transparent at wavelengths longer than 1100 nm, Si diodes
exhibit only a weak response to radiation at these wavelengths,
but the response can be extended to longer wavelengths by ion
implantation damage [1]. Knights et al. [2] have demonstrated a
photoresponse of 0.01 AW at 1550 nm using implantation
in Si rib-waveguide photodiodes 3 m wide and 4 m
thick. By reducing the dimensions of the waveguide and
optimizing the implantation, the performance and stability of
the diodes have been dramatically improved.
II. FABRICATION
A diagram of such a photodiode is shown in Fig. 1. The center
of the structure is intrinsic and there are p- and n-doped regions
on its opposite sides, forming a lateral p-i-n diode. Damage from
ion implantation makes the intrinsic region sensitive to light,
which when present in the waveguide causes carrier generation.
Away from the waveguide, the doping was cm to give
low electrical resistance in the slab. Close to the waveguide and
on its edges, the dose was lowered to cm to avoid ex-
cessive optical loss.
The diodes were fabricated in a silicon-on-insulator (SOI)
substrate using standard CMOS processing. Smart-cut [3] SOI
wafers were used, and the initial Si thickness of 0.5 m was
thinned to 0.22 m through oxidation and SiO removal in
buffered HF. A final wet oxidation performed at 900 C for
40 min coated the surface with 90 nm of SiO . The SiO and
Si layers were dry etched to form the structure shown in Fig. 1.
Doping with P and B ions followed by a 7-s 1000 C anneal
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