A reduced dark leakage current, without degrading the near-infrared responsivity, is reported for a vertical pin structure of Ge photodiodes (PDs) on n+-Si substrate, which usually shows a leakage current higher than PDs on p+-Si. The peripheral/surface leakage, the dominant leakage in PDs on n+-Si, is significantly suppressed by globally implanting P+ in the i-Si cap layer protecting the fragile surface of i-Ge epitaxial layer before locally implanting B+/BF2+ for the top p+ region of the pin junction. The P+ implantation compensates free holes unintentionally induced due to the Fermi level pinning at the surface/interface of Ge. By preventing the hole conduction from the periphery to the top p+ region under a negative/reverse bias, a reduction in the leakage current of PDs on n+-Si is realized.

We report good responsivity at the wavelength of 1600nm in a Ge photodetector which had lateral p-i-n structure and butt-joint coupling structure based on conventional normal complementary metal oxide semiconductor processes. We experimentally verified the responsivity of 0.82A/W and 0.71A/W on the best and the worst polarizations, respectively. The butt joint lateral p-i-n structure is found to be polarization independent as compared with vertical ones. Although cut-off frequency was 2.3-2.4GHz at reverse bias 3V, clearly open eye diagram at 10Gbps was obtained with reverse bias over 12V. These results are promising as optical photodetectors to receive long wavelengths downstream signal wavelengths required for next-generation optical access network systems.

An ultra-compact InGaAs photodetector (PD) is demonstrated based on a photonic crystal (PhC) waveguide to meet the demand for a photoreceiver for future dense photonic integration. Although the PhC-PD has a length of only 1.7µm and a capacitance of less than 1fF, a high responsivity of 1A/W was observed both theoretically and experimentally. This low capacitance PD allows us to expect a resistor-loaded receiver to be realized that requires no electrical amplifiers. We fabricated a resistor-loaded PhC-PD for light-to-voltage conversion, and demonstrated a kV/W efficiency with a GHz bandwidth without using amplifiers. This will lead to a photoreceiver with an ultralow energy consumption of less than 1fJ/bit, which is a step along the road to achieving a dense photonic network and processor on a chip.

I report modulation format conversion technology that maps on-off keying to 4-level pulse amplitude modulation signals. The conversion technology is based on balanced detection and intensity modulation. Two input optical on-off keying signals into a balanced photo detector produce an electrical signal that drives an intensity modulator to generate an optical pulse amplitude modulation signal. Two 20Gbit/s on-off keying signals were successfully converted into a 40Gbit/s pulse amplitude modulation signal.

This paper summarizes recent progress on modified uni-traveling carrier photodiodes that have achieved RF output power levels of 1.8 Watt and 4.4 Watt in continuous wave and pulsed operation, respectively. Flip-chip bonded discrete photodiodes, narrowband photodiodes, and photodiodes integrated with antennas are described.

The characteristics of violet-sensitive organic photodetectors (OPDs) utilizing polyalkylfluorene and triplet materials have been studied as a host and a dopant material, respectively. For the photo absorption layer, poly(9,9-dioctylfluorene) [PFO] and a phosphorescent iridium complex (Iridium (III) bis(2-(4,6-difluorophenyl)pyridinato-N,C2) [FIrpic] or Iridium (III) bis(2-(2'-benzothienyl)pyridinato-N,C3')(acetyl-acetonate) [(btp)2Ir(acac)]) were used as a host and a dopant material, respectively. PFO: (btp)2Ir(acac) device showed less photocurrent than PFO device because (btp)2Ir(acac) enhances recombination of the photo generated carriers in the photo absorption layer. On the other hand, PFO : FIrpic device showed larger photocurrent than PFO device due to triplet energy transfer from FIrpic to PFO. A cutoff frequency of 20 MHz was observed using a sinusoidal modulated violet laser light illumination under the reverse bias of 8 V.

Device characteristics of In0.5Ga0.5As/GaAs quantum dot infrared detector (QDIP) have been enhanced with hydrogen plasma treatment. After the hydrogen (H) plasma treatment, the dark currents were noticeably decreased and photoluminescence (PL) intensity was increased by H-passivation of interfacial traps between quantum dots and GaAs and of non-radiative defect centers caused during QD growths. Photo response, which could not be observed in as-grown QDIP due to large dark currents which obscured the photocurrent signal, was measured successfully after H-treatment due to H-passivation.

Effect of the post-growth annealing on the morphology of a Ge mesa selectively grown on Si was studied from the viewpoint of near-infrared photodiode applications. By ultrahigh-vacuum chemical vapor deposition, Ge mesas were selectively grown at 600 on Si (001) substrates partially covered with SiO2 masks. The as-grown Ge mesas showed trapezoidal cross-sections having a top (001) surface and {311} sidewall facets, as similar to previous reports. However, after the subsequent post-growth annealing at ~800 in the ultrahigh-vacuum chamber, the mesas were deformed into rounded shapes having a depression at the center and mounds near the edges. Such a deformation cannot be observed for the samples annealed once after cooled and exposed to the air. The residual hydrogen atoms on the Ge surface from the germane (GeH4) decomposition is regarded as a trigger to the observed morphological instability, while the final mesa shape is determined in order to minimize a sum of the surface and/or strain energies.

We demonstrated the transmission over 80 km at 10 Gb/s by using the amplifier and electroabsorption-modulator integrated laser diode. Tilt-facet antireflection window is implemented, inside of which a monitor photodiode is monolithically integrated for accurate power regulation. To better control the amplifier-input power and to reduce the feedback of the amplified spontaneous emission, an attenuator is incorporated by means of the inner-window. By amplifying the modulated signal and compensating modulator-chirp by gain-saturation in the amplifier, high power optical transmission is achieved from a device with -10 dB attenuation at total laser and amplifier currents of 200 mA.

We propose a burst optical packet generator based on a novel photonic parallel-to-serial conversion scheme, and demonstrate 40-Gbit/s 16-bit optical packet generation from 16-ch parallel low-voltage TTL data streams. It consists of electrical 4:1 parallel-to-serial converters that employ InP metal-semiconductor-metal photodetectors, and an optical time-domain multiplexer with electroabsorption modulators. The proposed optical packet generator is suitable for burst optical packet generation and overcomes the electronic bandwidth limitation, which is prerequisite for achieving high-speed photonic packet switched networks. In addition, it can be driven by simple low-cost low-power CMOS logic circuits, and is compact and extensible in terms of the number of input channels due to the effective combination of electrical and optical multiplexing.

One-dimentional equivalent circuit model of a heterostructure InAlAs/InGaAs/InP metal-semiconductor-metal photodetector is discussed. In this photodetector, InGaAs is used as an optical absorption layer and the InAlAs is used for Schottky barrier enhanement. The measured S11 parameter deviates from equi-resistance lines on the Smith chart, indicating the equivalent circuit is different from the conventional equivalent circuit using a series resistance, a depletion region capacitance and a depletion region resistance. The difference is due to band discontinuity at the heterojunctions, and we propose a equivalent circuit taking account of the band discontinuity. The band discontinuity is expressed by parallel combination of a resistance and a capacitance. The measured S11 parameter can be fitted well with the calculated S11 parameter from the proposed equivalent circuit, and we can successfully extract the device parameters from the fitted curve.

A new technique for optical generation of high-purity millimeter-wave (mm-wave) signals--namely, by synthesizing the outputs from cascadingly phase-locked multiple semiconductor lasers--was developed. Firstly, a high-spectral-purity mm-wave signal was optically generated by heterodyning the outputs from two phase-locked external-cavity semiconductor lasers. The beat signal was detected by a p-i-n photodiode whose output was directly coupled to a coax-waveguide converter followed by a W-band harmonic mixer. By constructing an optical phase-locked loop (OPLL), a high-spectral-purity mm-wave signal with an electrical power of 2.3 µW was successfully generated at 110 GHz with an rms phase fluctuation of 57 mrad. Secondly, the frequency of the mm-wave signal was extended by use of three cascadingly phase-locked semiconductor lasers. This technique uses a semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA) to generate four-wave-mixing (FWM) signals as well as to amplify the input signals. When the three lasers were appropriately tuned, two pairs of FWM signals were nearly degenerated. By phase-locking the offset frequency in one of the nearly degenerated pairs, the frequency separations among the three lasers were kept at a ratio of 1:2. Thus, we successfully generated high-purity millimeter-wave optical-beat signals at frequencies at 330.566 GHz with an rms phase fluctuation of 0.38 rad. A detailed analysis of the phase fluctuations was carried out on the basis of measured power spectral densities. The possibility of extending the mm-wave frequency up to 1 THz by using four cascadingly phase-locked lasers was also discussed.

A GeSi avalanche photodetector grown on a silicon-on-insulator (SOI) passive waveguide is demonstrated. The absorption layer of the detector consisits of alternating layers of 66 Ge0. 44Si0. 56 and 480 Si on SOI substrate. The thick SOI waveguide couples the light from an optical fiber into the GeSi/Si strain-limited thin absorption region. The detector exhibits low dark current, sharp breakdown and an external responsivity of 0. 2 A/W at 1. 3 µm wavelength.

Performances of photodetectors for ultrawide-band systems are outlined. Among several kinds of long-wavelength photodetectors, the waveguide p-i-n photodetector has achieved the largest bandwidth-efficiency product by using two designs: a multimode waveguide and a mushroom structures. The ultrawide-band high-efficiency operation of this photodiode has enabled the construction of a wide-band receiver opto-electronic integrated circuit and has made possible such novel system applications as 20-Gbit/s optical digital transmission using an Er-doped fiber amplifier and a 72-Gbit/s optoelectronic pulse-pattern generator.

Device models for a laser diode, photodetector, MESFET, HEMT, bipolar transistor, diode, and resistor are proposed and are implemented in a commercial mixed-signal simulator along with models for an optical fiber, an external optical modulator, and a pulse pattern generator. The validity of the models is confirmed by comparing simulated and experimental results. The performance of a mixed photonic/electronic circuit, which is determined by a large-signal waveform and the device noises, is estimated by the present analysis method.

Three dimensional (3-D) optics offers potential advantages to the massively-parallel systems over electronics from the view point of information transfer. The purpose of this paper is to survey some aspects of the 3-D optical interconnection technology for the future massively-parallel computing systems. At first, the state-of-art of the current optoelectronic array devices to build the interconnection networks are described, with emphasis on those based on the semiconductor technology. Next, the principles, basic architectures, several examples of the 3-D optical interconnection systems in neural networks and multiprocessor systems are described. Finally, the issues that are needed to be solved for putting such technology into practical use are summarized.

We show the design of the bandwidth and the external quantum efficiency (including the coupling efficency to a single-mode fiber) of p-i-n photodetectors. Based on their design procedures, the performance limits of both conventional surface-illuminated photodetectors and side-illuminated photodetectors are evaluated. We point out that in the ultrawide-band region, optical waveguide photodetectors have great advantages over conventional surface-illuminated photodetectors in terms of the product of the bandwidth and the external quantum efficiency. It is shown that a 100-GHz bandwidth can be achieved with little degradation of the external quantum efficiency by a multimode waveguide photodetector structure. We also present a design concept for overcoming the performance limits of solitary waveguide photodetectors by including an input tapered optical waveguide.

An integrated optoelectronic multiplier based on GaAs optoelectronic device technology, is proposed. The key element is an optoelectronic half-adder logic gate, which is composed of only two GaAs metal-semiconductor-metal photodetectors (MSM-PD's). It operates with a single clock delay, less than 100 ps. An optoelectronic full-adder and a multiplier are also composed of half-adders and surface-emitting laser-diodes (SEL's). Cascadable gates with optical interconnections are integrated. Utilizing improved device fabrication technology, an optoelectronic high-speed multiplier with a minimum number of gates will be realized in LSI.

We have successfully developed an optical receiver and a laser driver circuit which were implemented with 0.35 µm GaAs JFETs (junction Field Effect Transistors). The 0.35 µm GaAs. JFET had the typical transconductance of 480 mS/mm with small drain conductance. An interdigit MSM (Metal Semiconductor Metal) -type photodetector and the JFETs were monolithically integrated on a GaAs substrate for the optical receiver. The fabricated optical receiver demonstrated Gb/s operation with a very low power consumption of 8.2 mW. The laser driver circuit operated at up to 4.0 Gb/s.