Nano-multiplication region avalanche photodiodes and arrays
AssigneeCalifornia Institute of Technology
InventorsXinyu Zheng, Bedabrata Pain, Thomas J. Cunningham
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An avalanche photodiode with a nano-scale reach-through structure comprising n-doped and p-doped regions, formed on a silicon island on an insulator, so that the avalanche photodiode may be electrically isolated from other circuitry on other silicon islands on the same silicon chip as the avalanche photodiode. For some embodiments, multiplied holes generated by an avalanche reduces the electric field in the depletion region of the n-doped and p-doped regions to bring about self-quenching of the avalanche photodiode. Other embodiments are described and claimed.
Claims15
An article of manufacture comprising:
- a first insulator region, the first insulator region substantially planar;
- and
- a first silicon island formed on the first insulator region and having a first linear dimension substantially parallel to the first insulator region and a second linear dimension substantially perpendicular to the first linear dimension of the first silicon island, the first silicon island having a pillar formed on the first island, the pillar having a first linear dimension substantially parallel to the first insulator region and a second linear dimension substantially perpendicular to the first linear dimension of the pillar, wherein the first and second linear dimensions of the pillar are substantially less than the first and second linear dimensions of the first silicon island, the pillar comprising a p-doped silicon region and an n-doped silicon region, wherein the first insulator region is closer to the p-doped silicon region than to the n-doped silicon region.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.