Design of High-Speed UTC-PD With Optimization of Its Electron Transit Performance and Parasitic Capacitance
Xiaowen Dong, Kai Liu, Yongqing Huang, Xiaofeng Duan, Qi Wang, Xiaomin Ren
Abstract
An 1500 nm thick collector layer is adopted in the uni-travelling-carrier photodiode (UTC-PD) to reduce the PD's capacitance, while the PD's diameter is set to be 20 μm for better saturation performance and optical coupling characteristic of a signal from a single mode fiber. By optimizing biasing voltage and input light intensity, the electric field intensity in the collector layer would be controlled to make the photo-generated electron in the UTC-PD transiting at around its peak drift velocity in the collector layer and at the same time to make the UTC-PD obtaining it minimum capacitance. Together with the optimization of the doping distribution in UTC-PD's cliff layer and its collector layer, the UTC-PD's high-speed performance and saturation performance can be further improved. An optimized 20 μm diameter UTC-PD with a simulated 106 GHz 3 dB bandwidth and 21.02 dBm output RF power at 25 GHz is designed. It proposes a discussion to realize high speed, high saturation performance UTC-PD together with high coupling efficiency from a single mode optical fiber by bringing the electric field determined drift velocity performance of its uni-traveling- carrier, the electron, into full play.