Ultrafast, Dual-Depletion Region,
InGaAs/InP p-i-n Detector

Frank J. Effenberger & Abhay M. Joshi
Discovery Semiconductors, Inc.
119 Silvia Street
Ewing, New Jersey, 08628 USA

ABSTRACT

The design of a new kind of photodetector, the dual-depletion region p-i-n photodetector, is presented. This vertical detector has a parasitic capacitance and transit time that can be controlled semi-independently. This eases the classical tradeoff between these two speed limiting factors, allowing the design of large, fast detector. A theoretical analysis of the transit time effect and the capacitance effect is made. This analysis is then used to compute optimum design parameters.

* Published in Journal of Lightwave Technology, Vol. 14, No. 8, pp. 1859-1864, August 1996. This work was supported by Rome Laboratories Hanscom AFB for Phase I SBIR research activity under Contract F19628-94-C-0116.