Systematic Electro-Optical Study of Photodiodes in Intrinsic Material (Lowly Doped) with Backend Stack Optimization

This paper constitutes the analysis of the impact of low doped intrinsic p-type EPI thickness (20 µm and 30 µm) and bottom anti-reflective coating on the electrical and optical performance of various PIN photodiodes designs. The intrinsic p-type layer with a target resistivity of 400 Ω cm is an epitaxial layer (iEPI) grown on a low resistive substrate of 20 mΩ cm. Optimization of the photodiode's spectral responsivity (for a specific wavelength) includes a Bottom Anti-Reflective Coating (BARC) layer deposited over the silicon surface. BARC thickness is optimized for λ = 425 nm, λ = 750 nm and λ = 900 nm wavelengths. With respective BARC in place, the photodiode's quantum efficiency (QE) approaches 100% for λ = 750 nm with 20 µm and 30 µm iEPI thickness and for λ = 900 nm with 30 µm iEPI reaching also a maximum spectral response of 0.63 A/W at 800 nm. QE of 72% could be achieved at 425 nm. The leakage current varies from 3.5 pA for 20 µm iEPI thickness to 10 pA for 30 µm at 1 V reverse biasing for 365 µm circular PIN photodiode.