IEEE JOURNAL OF SELECTED TOPICS IN QUANTUM ELECTRONICS, VOL. 12, NO.
6, NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2006
Integrated BiCMOS p-i-n Photodetectors With High
Bandwidth and High Responsivity
Alexander Nemecek, Gerald Zach, Robert Swoboda, Klaus Oberhauser, Student Member, IEEE,
and Horst Zimmermann, Senior Member, IEEE
Abstract—The integration of the fast and efficient silicon p-i-n
photodetectors is presented. The suggested advanced p-i-n design
speeds up the detectors, avoiding slow carrier diffusion: the p+
anode is arranged in a thick n− low-doped intrinsic region placed
inside an n+ -doped region. Two p-i-n detector concepts are com-
pared: a plain p-i-n photodiode and a structured p-i-n fingerdiode
that is optimized for shorter wavelengths. Due to this setup and a
thick intrinsic region, a responsivity of R = 0.25 A/W (0.42 A/W)
{0.27 A/W} at a wavelength of λ = 410 nm (660 nm) {850 nm}
for the p-i-n fingerdiode, a bandwidth up to f3 dB = 3GHz and a
dark current of Idark = 0.36 pA at Vp- i- n = 17 V for the p-i-n
photodiode could be reached. As a system-on-chip (SOC), BiC-
MOS circuitry is combined with the integrated photodetector to
an optoelectronic integrated circuit (OEIC) as shown on an exem-
plary application of a 6-Gb/s monolithic optical receiver. The chips
are realized in a modified 0.5 µm BiCMOS process.
Index Terms—Integrated optoelectronics, optoelectronic in-
tegrated circuits (OEICs), photodetector, photodiode, p-i-n
technology.
I. INTRODUCTION
OWADAYS, modern communication networks with en-
N hanced data rates are inconceivable without optical com-
ponents. Modulated coherent sources and optoelectronic re-
ceivers in transmitters are necessary to handle the data stream
in popular fiber systems at 1.3 and 1.55 µm. Many applica-
tions in consumer electronics have sprung up in the last few
decades like CD or DVD equipment and have gained impor-
tance to the optoelectronic integrated circuits (OEICs). Today’s
optical pickups are working at 780 nm (CD-ROM) or at 650 nm
(DVD), but future systems will rely on even shorter wavelengths
(Blu-Ray, 410 nm) [1] to increase the storage capacity up to 30
GB and more on the physical media. Light in the visible range
is applied to plastic optical fiber (POF) as well as to networks
in the automotive sector, chip interconnects or on-chip intra-
connects. For high data rates in optical interconnects, vertical-
cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSELs) having wavelengths at
Manuscript received October 31, 2005; revised September 18, 2006. The
development of the p-i-n technology was supported in part by the European
Commission under Project INSPIRED. The work of A. Nemecek was supported
by the Austrian Bundesministerium fuer Verkehr, Innovation und Technologie
(BMVIT) via FFG under Project 809393/7845. The work of G. Zach was sup-
ported by FWF under Project P17801-N07.
A. Nemecek, G. Zach, K. Oberhauser, and H. Zimmermann are with the
Institute of Electrical Measurements and Circuit Design, Vienna University of
Technology, 1040 Vienna, Austria (e-mail: alexander.nemecek@tuwien.ac.at;
gerald.zach@tuwien.ac.at; klaus.oberhauser@tuwien.ac.at; horst.zimmermann
@ieee.org).
R. Swoboda is with A3PICs Electronics Development GmbH, 1040 Vienna,
Austria (e-mail: swoboda@a3pics.com).
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/JSTQE.2006.885145
1077-260X/$20.00 © 2006 IEEE
1469
850 nm are widely available. At present, high-speed low-cost
silicon optical receivers and on-chip laser sources implicate new
challenges [2].
The efforts to implement systems with a small amount of op-
tically interconnected chips or actually of integrating the whole
system-on-a-chip (SOC) manifest in many benefits: avoiding
electrical bond wires and pads reduces the risk of peaking and
bandwidth limitation due to additional inductance and capaci-
tance, respectively. Furthermore, reliability is improved, pack-
aging is easier, and devices become cheaper as a whole.
A promising attempt is to realize the optical receiver on a
monolithic integrated chip containing the photodetector and the
subsequent electrical circuitry, e.g., a transimpedance amplifier
(TIA). Besides the advantages mentioned earlier, this reduces
manufacturing costs and reverts to well-developed design tech-
niques, but obliges developers to deal with the compromising
properties of a certain substrate material. Physical limits and
parasitic effects involve tradeoffs, e.g., in our case, to decide
between a large detector area for adequate light coupling or a
small one to reduce parasitic capacitances for a high system
bandwidth.
However, hybrid techniques like germanium on silicon
[3]–[5] are accompanied by a better performance of the
photodetector but these complicate the integration together
with the electrical circuits, not considering increasing costs.
Though the required BiCMOS process is modified in terms
of the epitaxial layer, the full BiCMOS analog and digital
functionality is preserved.
II. PHYSICAL CONDITIONS AND STATE OF THE ART
The design of a photodetector that is both fast and efficient
requires a special setup of the diode. At first, the photogener-
ated charge carrier motion should be dominated by drift. Light
penetrating into regions without electric field causes slow dif-
fusion [6]. This can be avoided by integration of a low-doped
intrinsic region, wherein the main part of electron-hole pairs is
accelerated by the field strength.
The fundamental mechanism of speed enhancement by charge
carrier separation in the electrical field is described for the p-i-n
structure in Fig. 1(a). Generated electrons are directed to the
n-doped cathode, holes are lead to the p+ anode. Due to the
drift force, the bandwidth of the presented p-i-n detectors was
increased dramatically compared to a common p-n junction pho-
todetector. If we managed to generate all charge carriers in the
drift region, presence of diffusion in the resulting photocurrent
would be completely eliminated. This means that the intrinsic
region has to possess a minimum width for sufficient absorption
1470 IEEE JOURNAL OF SELECTED TOPICS IN QUANTUM ELECTRONICS, VOL. 12, NO. 6, NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2006
Fig. 1. Electric field strength distribution and related charge carrier separation
caused by drift in (a) p-i-n-structure and (b) p-i-n finger structure.
Fig. 2. Absorption coefficient versus wavelength of common semiconductor
materials.
at a special wavelength. Fig. 2 illustrates the absorption co-
efficient for common semiconductor materials. Unfortunately,
silicon becomes transparent for increasing wavelengths in the
IR spectra as for the widely used wavelengths 1.3 and 1.55 µm.
The absorption coefficient α defines the penetration depth
1/α of the incident optical power Popt in the semiconductor
material according to Lambert–Beer’s law
P (y) = Popt e−α y . (1)
Regarding the very different absorption depths from ∼ 0.1 µm
of UV light up to 10 µm for near-IR, the demands on a universal
photodiode are contrary. A large portion of the blue light is
absorbed in the p+ region [Fig. 1(a)] where carrier diffusion
slows down the photo response.
In order to exploit the benefits of a silicon process, at least
for near-IR, a thick intrinsic region has to be aimed for a high
responsivity R (or quantum efficiency, respectively) that is de-
fined as the quotient of the resulting photocurrent Iphoto over
the incident optical power Popt
Iphoto
R= . (2)
Popt
Blue light photons, on the other hand, do not penetrate into
deep regions. This means that the photogenerated charge carriers
would recombine in the highly doped anode of a homogenous
p-i-n photodiode. Therefore, a fingered structure of the anode
is more suitable to ensure drift for shorter wavelengths also.
UV light with 410-nm wavelength is absorbed to a very high
extent in the p+ anode where, due to the high doping level,
the carrier mobility and, therefore, the diffusion coefficient and
the diffusion length are limited leading to a low quantum effi-
ciency. In [7], a CMOS p-i-n photodiode was reported to have
a responsivity of 0.08 A/W at 410 nm. The suggested finger
structure [7]–[9] avoids this problem in the spacing between
the p+ fingers where the doping level is very low and fast car-
rier drift effectively separates the photogenerated electron–hole
pairs leading to much higher quantum efficiency for 410 nm
than that of a homogeneous p-i-n photodiode.
Applying the same reverse voltage to a p-i-n finger structure
leads to a lower, nonhomogenous field distribution in between
the finger electrodes as shown in Fig. 1(b). Though the band-
width of this detector is slightly reduced, responsivity for short
wavelength is increased.
As suggested in the literature, a fast photodetector based on
a metal–semiconductor–metal (MSM) structure on GaAs with
a bandwidth of f3 dB > 39GHz is presented in [10]. The metal
fingers of the MSM structure, however, reduce the quantum ef-
ficiency. Another silicon solution is presented in [11], where,
thanks to SiO2 and polysilicon, a resonant-cavity structure
with f3 dB = 10GHz was reported. However, resonant-cavity
enhanced photodetectors heavily depend on layer thickness tol-
erances and are not yet available from application-specified in-
tegrated circuit (ASIC) foundries or other chip manufacturers.
Silicon avalanche photodiodes (APDs) [12] require very high
reverse voltages of up to 110 V for sufficient amplification and
bandwidth with red and near-IR light. Therefore, APDs are only
useful in integrated silicon circuits for blue light. Silicon realiza-
tions of lateral p-i-n photodiodes are suggested in [13] and [14]
on silicon-on-insulator (SOI) substrate. In [13], a responsivity
of 0.20 A/W at 850 nm and a bandwidth of 2.8 GHz were re-
ported for a lateral p-i-n photodiode in a 3-µm-thick SOI layer
at a reverse bias of 20 V. In [15], high voltages of up to 27 V
were applied to lateral p-i-n photodiodes in SOI to increase the
drift speed and thereby the bandwidth. Using a modified CMOS
technology, a high bandwidth of up to 15 GHz at a low quantum
efficiency of only 3% was reported in [16] for a lateral p-i-n
photodiode at 850 nm with an SOI layer thickness of 200 nm.
Another realization of the finger photodiodes in CMOS with
rise and fall times of 1.0 and 1.1 ns, respectively, at 638 nm is
presented in [7]. A high reverse voltage of the p-i-n finger photo-
diode improves its drift speed, especially in the region between
the p+ fingers at the silicon surface. It will be shown here that
NEMECEK et al.: INTEGRATED BiCMOS p-i-n PHOTODETECTORS WITH HIGH BANDWIDTH AND HIGH RESPONSIVITY 1471

Fig. 3. Principle cross section of OEIC. (a) p-i-n photodiode. (b) Circuitry (n-p-n transistor). (c) p-i-n fingerdiode.

the operation of the p-i-n fingerdiode in a wide spectral range,

in excess of 2 GHz, is possible at 17 V.

III. INTEGRATED PHOTODIODES

In this work, we demonstrate two main setups of photodiodes.
Starting from an underlying silicon p-type substrate, a 0.5-µm
BiCMOS process satisfies our demands on the fabrication of the
desired photodetectors. Modifications according to [17] were
necessary, such as a 10-µm-thick n− epitaxial layer for the p-i-n
photodiode, a p-isolation, and a high collector doping for the
n-p-n transistor. For a better illustration of the device buildup,
a bipolar n-p-n transistor is shown in Fig. 3(b) in this tech-
nology, which should represent the on-chip integrated circuitry.
Fig. 4. Simulated potential of the detector between two finger anodes at a
Furthermore, the two different types of photodiodes are shown reverse bias V p- i- n = 5 V.
in Fig. 3(a) and (c).

pletely even at low reverse voltages, this detector achieves good

A. Pin Photodiode
The device depicted in Fig. 3(a) outlines the structure of the
p-i-n photodiode. An enclosing environment consisting of an n+
buried layer and contacting n-type regions ensures the device
isolation to other components on the chip. Concurrently, this
surrounding regions form the cathode of the photodiode that
is contacted to the surface. The anode features a highly doped
p+ implant with a thickness of 0.4 µm and is located upon the
epitaxial n− -doped region. Though the anode could be realized
even thinner with p− doping from the base implant, which is
of advantage especially for the blue light, the increased serial
resistance would reduce the performance of the photodiode.
The intrinsic region was grown to a sufficient thickness for the
desired high responsivity. p-i-n photodiodes with diameters of
50 and 100 µm were realized.
Within the two electrodes, the quasi-intrinsic area is situ-
ated that is the characteristic trait of a p-i-n device. In the first
instance, the concentration of impurities and the crystal de-
fects in this epitaxial region are responsible for the undesired
charge carrier recombination. To achieve high responsivity, es-
pecially with wavelengths in the red and near-IR, the vertical
extension of this area must be large. Due to the low doping
(< 1014 cm−3 ) of the quasi-intrinsic region that is depleted com-
performance.
The optical reflection and interference losses are reduced by
an anti-reflection coating (ARC) deposited on the surface.
B. Pin Fingerdiode
Focusing on the second version of our photodiode, we use the
same p-i-n platform proposed in Section III-A, but with a single
modification: here, with the p-i-n fingerdiode, the p+ anode in
Fig. 3(c) is split up into narrow stripes in the lateral direction
compared to the holohedral shape of the anode in the conven-
tional p-i-n photodiode. This yields intrinsic areas directly at
the surface where drift can dominate the charge carrier separa-
tion [Fig. 1(b)]. The penetration depth for short wavelengths, in
particular blue light, is very small in silicon; hence, this amend-
ment turns into responsivity and speed improvements for the
blue light leading to an extension of the application region into
the blue and UV spectral range.
All fingers are connected to a common anode by metal lines.
Device simulations show the resulting potential gradient be-
tween two of the fingers in Fig. 4 for applying a reverse voltage
to this detector. Photodiodes with a finger width of 0.6 µm
and a spacing of 5.1 µm between the p+ fingers were fabri-
cated. Using nonmetallized fingers, the quantum efficiency can
1472 IEEE JOURNAL OF SELECTED TOPICS IN QUANTUM ELECTRONICS, VOL. 12, NO. 6, NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2006

Fig. 5. Measured responsivity of the realized p-i-n diodes versus wavelength. Fig. 6. Measured dark current of the realized p-i-n diodes versus reverse bias
voltage.

be improved [18]. The surface was again coated with an ARC

layer.

IV. MEASUREMENT RESULT

Both the detectors, the homogeneous p-i-n photodiode and
the p-i-n fingerdiode, have been characterized concerning re-
sponsivity R, dark current Idark , and bandwidth f3 dB . As can
be shown, the p-i-n photodiode is more suitable for red or near-
IR light, while the p-i-n fingerdiode is optimized for the UV
range. Therefore, silicon p-i-n technology is qualified for the
fast and efficient photodetectors. In order to achieve uniform
conditions for an assumed circular illumination, the p-i-n pho-
todiode was built in an octagonal form. The p-i-n fingerdiode,
on the other hand, was designed in a rectangular shape to ensure
proper field strength distribution between the fingers with re- Fig. 7. Measured frequency responses of the plain p-i-n photodiode for red
duced edge impact. The photodiodes were mounted and bonded and near-IR and different voltages (V p-i-n = 3, 5, 12, and 17 V).
directly to a printed circuit board (PCB) and terminated with a
50 Ω load. A light-spot diameter of < 50 µm was used for the
characterization of the photodetectors. B. Dark Current
The dark current Idark of a photodetector is an important
design parameter for ICs, e.g., a TIA. Little dark current is also of
A. Responsivity interest under the condition of very low illumination. However,
According to the mentioned explanations in Section II, the the dark current is a phenomena related to the surface of the
recombination in the homogeneous anode of the p-i-n photo- space–charge region. Therefore, the p-i-n photodiode possesses
diode reduces the available responsivity, especially for short a much lower dark current Idark = 0.02–0.2 pA compared to
wavelengths (Fig. 5) compared to the p-i-n fingerdiode. The the p-i-n fingerdiode Idark = 4–27 pA for a diameter of 50 µm
achieved responsivity for the p-i-n photodiode is R = 0.08 A/W at a reverse bias voltage range of Vp-i-n = 1–17 V (Fig. 6). The
(0.36 A/W) {0.28 A/W} at wavelengths λ = 410 nm (660 nm) measurements were done using a Keithley electrometer, type
{850 nm} and for the p-i-n fingerdiode R = 0.25 A/W (0.42 6517A.
A/W) {0.27 A/W}, respectively. For shorter wavelengths up to
red light, the responsivity of the p-i-n photodiode is lower due to
the recombination in the anode. In contrast to other photodiodes, C. Bandwidth
optimized only for red to blue light, like examples given in [7], Though the so far mentioned parameters are interesting,
the presented technology covers a wider spectral range at high the most important data for the use of a photodetector in
responsivity. Furthermore, Fig. 5 shows the maximum achiev- an OEIC is its bandwidth. As shown in Fig. 7, the band-
able responsivity (straight line) and the calculated limit for the width of the p-i-n photodiode reaches f3 dB = 2.2 GHz for
photodetector with a thickness of 10 µm. The measurements λ = 850 nm and exceeds f3 dB = 3 GHz for λ = 660 nm at
were done under dc conditions. Vp-i-n = 17 V.
NEMECEK et al.: INTEGRATED BiCMOS p-i-n PHOTODETECTORS WITH HIGH BANDWIDTH AND HIGH RESPONSIVITY
Fig. 8. Measured frequency responses of the structured p-i-n fingerdiode for
blue, red, and near-IR light and with different voltages (V p-i-n = 3, 5, 12, and
17 V).
Fig. 9. Chip photograph of (a) octagonal p-i-n photodiode and (b) rectangular
p-i-n fingerdiode.
For the p-i-n fingerdiode, f3 dB = 2.0 GHz for λ = 410 nm,
f3 dB = 2.2 GHz for 660 nm, and f3 dB = 2.2GHz for 850 nm
at Vp- i- n = 17 V were measured as shown in Fig. 8. The cutoff
frequency at 660 nm is higher compared to 850 nm because
of slow drifting holes from deeper regions to the anode and an
increasing diffusion current contribution due to photogeneration
in the highly doped buried cathode.
These measurements were done with a 3-GHz HP network
analyzer type 8753 E calibrated with a 12-GHz photoreceiver.
All plots are shown for Vp- i- n = 3, 5, 12, and 17 V in ascending
order corresponding to the cutoff frequency with a shifted zero
level according to different wavelengths for better visualization
and a marked corresponding -3-dB reference line.
Fig. 9(a) shows the chip photograph of the octagonal p-i-
n photodiode with a photosensitive diameter of 100 µm, the
inner contacts of the anode, and the surrounding cathode. The
rectangular p-i-n fingerdiode is shown in Fig. 9(b), containing
again the surrounding cathode and the p+ -doped finger anodes
plus contacts inside the light sensitive area.
1473
Fig. 10. Principle schematic of the OEIC receiver.
Fig. 11. Bit error rate versus average optical input power for 1, 1.25, 2, 2.5,
3, 4, 5, and 6 Gb/s.
V. APPLICATION
As an example, an OEIC receiver containing the integrated
p-i-n photodiode and a TIA, as shown in [19], was realized in
the modified BiCMOS process. The high data rate of 6 Gb/s
at a sensitivity of -21.0 dBm (-18.2 dBm) at a wavelength of
660 nm (850 nm) can be achieved thanks to the high bandwidth
of the presented p-i-n photodiode having a diameter of 50 µm
and a parasitic capacitance of Cp- i- n < 60 fF. Furthermore, a
quasi-differential circuit concept containing not only the TIA,
but also a dummy TIA, is used to ensure immunity to substrate
noise in analog-digital ICs. A control feedback loop includ-
ing a correction circuit compensates for the offset and back-
ground light (Fig. 10). An overview of the achieved bit error
rate versus average optical input power for different data rates
is shown in Fig. 11. The chip occupied a total area of 870 µm
×720 µm. A comparison of results of optical data receivers is
shown in Table I. The presented p-i-n BiCMOS photodetectors
plus optimized circuit architecture are superior to silicon OE-
ICs reported in the literature with respect to the bandwidth and
sensitivity.
1474 IEEE JOURNAL OF SELECTED TOPICS IN QUANTUM ELECTRONICS, VOL. 12, NO. 6, NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2006
TABLE I
COMPARISON OF SOME PUBLISHED RECEIVERS IN SILICON TECHNOLOGY
(*MODIFIED TECHNOLOGY)
TABLE II
p-i-n-PHOTODETECTOR CHARACTERISTICS
VI. CONCLUSION
Integrated photodetectors based on a p-i-n technology are pre-
sented exploiting a modified BiCMOS process. Due to the low-
doped wide intrinsic region, a high responsivity of R = 0.36
A/W at 660 nm is achieved and a high drift field can be applied
to speed up the p-i-n photodiode to exceed a bandwidth of 3 GHz
at 660 nm and Vp- i- n = 17 V. A p-i-n fingerdiode is presented
to benefit from the advanced p-i-n technology for short wave-
lengths as well. Both p-i-n detectors are characterized concern-
ing responsivity, dark current, and bandwidth (Table II). The
responsivity of the p-i-n finger photodiode at 410 nm is larger
than that of the p-i-n photodiode, whereby the bandwidth is still
2.0 GHz, by a factor of 3.1. Concluding, an optical high-speed,
high-sensitivity data receiver is presented as an application. Ver-
tical p-i-n photodetectors were shown to combine both high
speed and high responsivity. Despite the indirect bandgap of
silicon, low-cost OEICs in BiCMOS technology can be applied
with data rates of 6 Gb/s and above at very good sensitivities in
a wide spectral range from 850 to 410 nm.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The authors would like to thank G. Langguth of Infineon
Technologies, Munich, Germany, and his team for the support
in the development of the p-i-n photodiode.
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NEMECEK et al.: INTEGRATED BiCMOS p-i-n PHOTODETECTORS WITH HIGH BANDWIDTH AND HIGH RESPONSIVITY
Alexander Nemecek was born in Vienna, Austria,
in 1975. He received the Master’s degree (with dis-
tinction) in electrical engineering automation control
from Vienna Technical University, Vienna, Austria,
in 2003.
Currently, he is a Scientific Research Assistant
on circuit design of optoelectronic integrated circuits
(OEICs) at the Institute of Electrical Measurement
and Circuit Design, Vienna University of Technol-
ogy, Vienna. His current research interests include au-
tomation control, circuit design, computer-supported
numerical model analysis, and photonics.
Gerald Zach was born in Horn, Austria, in 1979.
He received the Master’s degree (with distinction)
in electrical engineering from Vienna University of
Technology, Vienna, Austria, in 2004.
Since 2004, he has been a Scientific Research
Assistant at the Institute of Electrical Measurement
and Circuit Design, Vienna University of Technol-
ogy, where he is engaged in the development of opto-
electronic integrated circuits (OEICs) in the Circuit
Design Group. His current research interests include
integrated circuit design, communication engineer-
ing, and digital signal processing.
Robert Swoboda was born in Vienna, Austria, on
December 15, 1970. He received the Dipl.-Ing. de-
gree from Vienna University of Technology, Vienna,
Austria, in 2001.
He was with the Institute for Electrical Mea-
surements and Circuit Design, Vienna University of
Technology, until 2005. Currently, he is with A3PICs
Electronics Development GmbH, Vienna. His current
research interests include analog high-frequency cir-
cuit design, in general, optoelectronic integrated cir-
cuits, and circuit theory.
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Klaus Oberhauser (S’05) received the Master’s de-
gree (with distinction) in electrical engineering au-
tomation control from Vienna Technical University,
Vienna, Austria, in 2003.
Since April 2003, he has been a Scientific Re-
search Assistant on circuit design of optoelectronic
integrated circuits (OEICs) at the Institute of Elec-
trical Measurement and Circuit Design, Vienna Uni-
versity of Technology, Vienna. His current research
interests include circuit design, automation control,
photonics, and semiconductor physics.
Horst Zimmermann (M’98–SM’02) was born in
Sulzbach-Rosenberg, Germany, in 1957. He received
the Dr.-Ing. degree from the Fraunhofer Institute for
Integrated Circuits (IIS-B), Erlangen, Germany, in
1991.
He was an Alexander-von-Humboldt Research
Fellow at Duke University, Durham, NC, where he
worked on diffusion in Si, GaAs, and InP until 1992.
During 1993, he was with the Chair for Semicon-
ductor Electronics, Kiel University, Kiel, Germany,
where he lectured on optoelectronics and worked on
optoelectronic integration in silicon. Since 2000, he has been a Professor of
electronic circuit design at Vienna University of Technology, Vienna, Austria.
His current research interests include design and characterization of analog,
deep-submicrometer CMOS circuits, and optoelectronic integrated CMOS and
BiCMOS circuits. He is the author or coauthor of more than 150 publications.
He is also the author of Integrated Silicon Optoelectronics (Springer, 2000) and
Silicon Optoelectronic Integrated Circuits (Springer, 2004).