Photodetector for detecting incoming infrared light

An optical receiver comprising:

• a substrate;
• a photodetector having an i-type semiconductor region being mounted to the substrate and having a length, p-type and n-type semiconductor regions being mounted to the substrate and sandwiching the i-type semiconductor region along at least said length;
• a grating coupler being mounted to the substrate and being optically coupled to one of two ends of the i-type semiconductor region, the grating coupler redirecting an incoming optical data signal into and along the i-type semiconductor region via the one of the two ends of the i-type semiconductor region for propagation of said optical data signal along the i-type semiconductor region;
• and electrical contacts electrically connected to the p-type semiconductor region and to the n-type semiconductor region;
• and
• an output signal processing circuit being electrically connected to the electrical contacts of the photodetector and being configured for outputting an electrical data signal based on a photocurrent resulting from said propagation.

A photodetector for detecting incoming infrared light, the photodetector comprising:

• a substrate;
• an i-type semiconductor region extending along the substrate, the i-type semiconductor region being sandwiched between a p-type semiconductor region and an n-type semiconductor region;
• a grating coupler being optically connected to one of two ends of the i-type semiconductor region, the grating coupler redirecting incoming infrared light into and along the i-type semiconductor region via the one of the two ends of the i-type semiconductor region for propagation of infrared light along the i-type semiconductor region;
• and a photocurrent detection circuit electrically connected to the p-type semiconductor region and to the n-type semiconductor region for detecting a photocurrent resulting from said propagation.