Investigation of guardring-free planar AlInAs avalanche photodiodes

Abstract

We analyze the operation principle and the characteristics of a guardring-free planar AlInAs avalanche photodiode (APD) by computational simulation and experimental results. The simple planar structure is based on a novel epitaxy-junction diode concept and its practical performance for 10-Gb/s optical receivers was successfully demonstrated. Electric field simulations clarified how edge multiplication, which is an inherent problem in APDs, is suppressed in the guardring-free structure. The experimental results, which are current-voltage, capacitance-voltage, and wide-range line scans of responsivity, support the simulation results, and the simulation explains the peculiar characteristics of the experimental results. The computational and the experimental analysis are consistent with one another