High Speed and High Responsivity Avalanche Photodiode Fabricated by Standard CMOS Process in Blue Wavelength Region

Abstract

Quadrant silicon avalanche photodiodes (APDs) were fabricated by standard 0.18µm CMOS process, and were characterized at 405nm wavelength for Blu-ray applications. The size of each APD element is 50×50µm². The dark current was 10pA at low bias voltage, and low crosstalk of about -80dB between adjacent APD elements was achieved. Although the responsivity is less than 0.1A/W at low bias voltage, the responsivity is enhanced to more than 1A/W at less than 10V bias voltage due to avalanche amplification. The wide bandwidth of 1.5GHz was achieved with the responsivity of more than 1A/W, which is limited by the capacitance of the APD. We believe that the fabricated quadrant APD is a promising photodiode for multi-layer Blu-ray system.