Semiconductor light-receiving device

Abstract

A semiconductor light-receiving device 1a comprises a first InP layer 12 having a first conductive type region 20a, a second InP layer 16 having a second conductive type, and an InGaAs light-receiving layer 14 disposed between these layers 12, 16. The InP layer 16 of second conductive type has a maximum carrier concentration of 1×1017 cm−3 or higher. Because of this carrier concentration, the depletion layer caused by an applied reverse bias to extend into the InP layer 16 becomes sufficiently small. Therefore, this depletion layer spreads within the light-receiving layer 14 in which electron-hole pairs are generated. Hence, the applied voltage can fully be utilized for drifting generated carriers. Thus provided is a semiconductor light-receiving device in which the occurrence of wave tails is reduced.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.