High performance, waveguide integrated Ge photodetectors

Photonic systems based on complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) technology require the integration of passive and active photonic devices. The integration of waveguides and photodetector is one of the most important technologies. We report a Ge p-i-n photodetector that is monolithically integrated with silicon oxynitride and silicon nitride waveguides. All processes and materials are CMOS compatible and can be implemented in the current integrated circuit process technology. The small size of the devices results in low absolute dark current. The waveguide-coupled Ge devices show high efficiency (similar to 90%) over a wide range of wavelengths well beyond the direct band gap of Ge, resulting in a responsivity of 1.08 A/W for 1550 nm light. The device speed of 7.2 GHz at 1V reverse bias is strongly affected by the capacitance of the probe pads. The high-performance of the devices at low voltage (<= 1V) facilitates the integration with CMOS circuits. (c) 2007 Optical Society of America.