Dark current modeling of InP based SWIR and MWIR InGaAs/GaAsSb type-II MQW photodiodes

This paper reports the dark current characteristics of SWIR and MWIR p-i-n photodiodes with type-II InGaAs/GaAsSb multiple quantum wells as the absorption region. A bulk based model with the effective band gap of the type-II quantum well structure has been used. We investigated the dark current contributing mechanisms that are limiting the electrical performance of these photodiodes. The quantitative simulation of the I-V characteristics shows that the performance of InGaAs/GaAsSb photodiodes is dominated by generation-recombination component at the temperature between 200 and 290 K for reverse biases below 5 V. Trap-assisted tunneling current and direct tunneling current begin to dominate when the reverse bias is higher than 10 V.