December 2021
Spotlight Summary by Periklis Petropoulos
180 Gbit/s Si3N4-waveguide coupled germanium photodetector with improved quantum efficiency
Our communications and the online services that modern societies have come to rely so heavily upon depend on the development of ultrafast photonic devices. Silicon photonics has enabled a massive miniaturisation of high-speed optical transceivers. Large numbers of these are tasked with sending and receiving the exorbitant number of bits of information that are processed in datacentres on every second of the hour. As the demand for communication traffic grows relentlessly, ever faster transmitters and receivers are required.
This paper studies a germanium-on-silicon photodiode architecture that enables operation at extremely high speeds while achieving a high efficiency. It uses a silicon nitride waveguide that runs parallel to the germanium absorption region and ensures a uniform distribution of the photo-generated carriers. The authors present a detailed study of the structure parameters, that gives rise to an almost two-fold increase in the responsivity of the photodetector. Using this optimised structure, they subsequently demonstrate the detection of signals operating at a transmission rate of up to 180 Gbit/s.
This is a significant result that feeds further the race for the fastest components on chip. Exceptional as these results may be, one can be sure that this race does not end here!
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This paper studies a germanium-on-silicon photodiode architecture that enables operation at extremely high speeds while achieving a high efficiency. It uses a silicon nitride waveguide that runs parallel to the germanium absorption region and ensures a uniform distribution of the photo-generated carriers. The authors present a detailed study of the structure parameters, that gives rise to an almost two-fold increase in the responsivity of the photodetector. Using this optimised structure, they subsequently demonstrate the detection of signals operating at a transmission rate of up to 180 Gbit/s.
This is a significant result that feeds further the race for the fastest components on chip. Exceptional as these results may be, one can be sure that this race does not end here!
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Xi X.
05/05/2022 5:22 AM