Design and Implementation of a Photo Detector Using a Complementary Metal-Oxide Semiconductor

In this paper, we present a photo detector using a complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS) for plastic optical fiber (POF) applications. Generally, the PIN photodiode and optical receiver front-end circuit are made from III-V compound materials, such as GaAs, InP, and HEMT (High Electron Mobility Transistor), due to their high speed and low noise characteristics. However, silicon deep-submicron CMOS technology is more attractive due to its low cost and high integration capacity. A PIN photodiode using a CMOS suffers from a low responsivity (R) a slow spreading speed of drift and diffusion current generated by photon. To overcome the low responsivity of the CMOS PIN photodiode, we exploit a PN junction between the N-well and the P-substrate. We propose a finger-shaped arrangement of the P-substrate to compensate for the slow spreading speed of the drift currents. The implemented CMOS PIN photodiode exhibits 0.12-A/W responsivity and 4.5-pF parasitic capacitance. Also, the optical receiver front-end circuit for the POF applications is integrated with the CMOS PIN photodiode. The designed photo detector exhibits a 112-MHz 3-dB bandwidth and consumes only 3-mA of DC current from a single 3.3 V supply voltage. In this paper, we present a photo detector using a complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS) for plastic optical fiber (POF) applications. Generally, the PIN photodiode and optical receiver front-end circuit are made from III-V compound materials, such as GaAs, InP, and HEMT (High Electron Mobility Transistor), due to their high speed and low noise characteristics. However, silicon deep-submicron CMOS technology is more attractive due to its low cost and high integration capacity. A PIN photodiode using a CMOS suffers from a low responsivity (R) a slow spreading speed of drift and diffusion current generated by photon. To overcome the low responsivity of the CMOS PIN photodiode, we exploit a PN junction between the N-well and the P-substrate. We propose a finger-shaped arrangement of the P-substrate to compensate for the slow spreading speed of the drift currents. The implemented CMOS PIN photodiode exhibits 0.12-A/W responsivity and 4.5-pF parasitic capacitance. Also, the optical receiver front-end circuit for the POF applications is integrated with the CMOS PIN photodiode. The designed photo detector exhibits a 112-MHz 3-dB bandwidth and consumes only 3-mA of DC current from a single 3.3 V supply voltage. KCI Citation Count: 0