Design of low-noise avalanche photodiodes

John P. R. David; Chee Hing Tan; S. A. Plimmer; Graham J. Rees; Richard C. Tozer; Peter N. Robson

doi:10.1117/12.382172

19 April 2000 Design of low-noise avalanche photodiodes

John P. R. David, Chee Hing Tan, S. A. Plimmer, Graham J. Rees, Richard C. Tozer, Peter N. Robson

Proceedings Volume 3950, Optoelectronic Integrated Circuits IV; (2000) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.382172
Event: Symposium on Integrated Optoelectronics, 2000, San Jose, CA, United States

Abstract

Avalanche photodiodes with thin, sub-micron avalanching regions are found to give avalanche noise lower than predicted by conventional noise theory. Measurements of the excess noise on a range of sub-micron GaAs, InP and Si homojunction p-i-n diodes show that the noise decreases as the avalanching width decreases, even though the electron and hole ionization coefficients remain very similar at high electric fields. Simple Monte Carlo modeling of the ionization process suggests that this reduction is due to the increasing importance of the `dead-space', the minimum distance over which carriers need to travel in order to gain the ionization threshold energy. As this dead-space becomes more significant and the subsequent ionization coefficient increases, the ionization process becomes more deterministic and hence the avalanche noise decreases. Modeling also predicts that reductions in avalanche noise can be obtained in p-n junctions where the electric-field varies rapidly and this has now been observed experimentally.

Citation Download Citation

John P. R. David, Chee Hing Tan, S. A. Plimmer, Graham J. Rees, Richard C. Tozer, and Peter N. Robson "Design of low-noise avalanche photodiodes", Proc. SPIE 3950, Optoelectronic Integrated Circuits IV, (19 April 2000); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.382172

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