High-speed, waveguide Ge PIN photodiodes for a photonic BiCMOS process

Abstract

Waveguide-coupled, Ge lateral pin photodiodes featuring bandwidths of more than 50GHz and 40Gbps functionality are presented. Non-doping implantations are applied that allow one to reach this performance even under the effect of thermal steps acting when the diodes are integrated in a high-performance BiCMOS process. The effect of these implants is to lower the minority-carrier lifetime(s) and in this way, to reduce bandwidth degradation by minority-carrier diffusion in non-depleted, weakly doped regions.