IEEE JOURNAL OF QUANTUM ELECTRONICS, VOL. 32, NO.

12, DECEMBER 1996

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PIN Avalanche Photodiodes Model for Circuit Simulation

Weiyou Chen and Shiyong Liu
Abstract- A circuit model of PIN avalanche photodiodes (APDs) based on the carrier rate equations for circuit simulation is presented. This model is for dc, ac, and transient analysis. As an example, an Ino,53Gao.47As-InP PIN APD is simulated.

I. INTRODUCTION N high-bit-rate lightwave transmission systems, an avalanche photodiode (APD) can provide substantial margins in receiver sensitivity compared to the PIN photodiode, which is an important device in large capacity, long-distance fiber-optical communication systems. A large amount of experiments have been done for APDs in the 1980s [1]-[7], and recent,works mainly focus on developing new structures [8]-[13] to reduce noise. As the progress of optoelectronic technology and the increase of optoelectronic integrated circuits (OEICs) scale, the design difficulty for OEIC will get larger, and the question which the designer must face will be how to quickly design a high-quality OEIC. The computer-aided analysis and design for OEIC will be the only choice. Until recently, only several simple models for APD [14], [15] are reported, however, the circuit model, which can be used for circuit simulation of OEIC, for APDs have not been developed. Under the considerations of the minority carrier diffusion in p and n regions and the carrier drift in the i region, a circuit model of a PIN APD is deduced. This model can be used to simulate PIN-photodiodes when the parameters of impact ionization rates in the model are taken to be zero.
1 1 . CIRCUIT MODELOF PIN-APD

0 FreeElechw

0 FreeHole

Fig. 1. Schematic drawing of PIN-APD.

density in the i region is quite smaller than the other two regions, the above assumptions are reasonable. For the n-i interface, the current through the interface includes two parts: one is the diffusion current of the minority carriers in the n region, and the other is the drift current of electrons in the i region. The electrons in the i region are from photo-generation, hole-initiated impact ionization, electroninitiated impact ionization, and the diffusion of minority carriers in the p region. For reverse-biased PIN structure, the following rate equations can be used: n region:

p region:

The schematic structure of a PIN-APD is shown in Fig. 1. i region [161: For the sake of convenience, the following deductions are for illumination through n side (ITNS). The equations obtained for illumination through p side (ITPS) need only a little modification. For PIN structure, we can assume that: 1) the widths of depletion layer in the n and p sides are smaller than the width of the i region so that they can be neglected; and 2) where the Pn and Np are the total excess holes and electrons i are the total excess electrons the electric field is uniform for the i region and is zero in the in the n and p regions, Ni and P n and p regions. For actual devices, the i region is almost not and holes in the i region, q is the electron charge, rp and intrinsic, because even if it is not doped intentionally, there is T~ are the hole and electron life-time in the n and p regions, a certain amount of impurities in the i region. Thus, the above T~~ and rpTare the recombination life-time of electron and two assumptions are not strict, but so long as the impurity hole in the i region, rnt and rpt are the electron and hole transit-time through the i region, PG and NG are the electronManuscript received December 15, 1995; revised August 8, 1996. hole pair generation rates in the n and p regions by incident The authors are with the Department of Electronic Engineering, Jilin light, NG~(=PG is ~ the ) generation rate in the i region, I,, and University, Changchun, 130023, R.O.C. Inare the hole and electron diffusion current in the n and p Publisher Item Identifier S 0018-9197(96)08667-8.
0018-9197/96$05.00 0 1996 IEEE

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IEEE JOURNAL OF QUANTUM ELECTRONICS, VOL 32, NO. 12, DECEMBER 1996

TABLE I
IMPACT IONIZATION CONSTANTS FOR SEVERAL

TYPICAL 1II-V GROUP MATERIALS

I
regions, un and up are the electron and hole drift velocities in the i region, and and are the electron and hole impact ionization rates in the i region. If the electric field in the avalanche region is nonuniform, U,, up, &, and all are the complicated functions of coordinates, and the avalanche gain terms in (3) and (4) cannot be written so simply. Under the electric neutral condition, Pi = Ni, (4)can be neglected, and (3) can be written as

e,

c,

the following empirical formulas can be used:

USP

Several important relations are given as follows:

where F is the electric field in the i region, F = (VJ VBI)/W~, VJ is the applied voltage, VBI is the built-in potential, P, and pp are the electron and hole mobilities in the i region, respectively, and us, and vspare the electron and hole saturation drift velocities in the i region, respectively. The empirical dependences of electron and hole impact ionization rates on electric field can be written as [17], [18]

. [l - exp (-ai. Wi)]

Wi rnt = -

w i rpt = UP

un

where a,, bn, cn, u p , b,, and cp are constants, which can be obtained by fitting the experimental data. The data which are taken from [I] and [19]-[22] for some typical materials are given in Table I. In order to improve numerical accuracy, a constant C,, is introduced, and it can be thought as a capacitance. Let

where P,, is the power of incident light, R is the facet reflectivity of the n region, hu is the photon energy, a,, a;, then (l), (2), and ( 5 ) can be written as and a, are the absorption coefficients of the n, i, and p regions, p i n = c n o __ dVP V P Ip and W,, Wi, and W, are the widths of n, i, and p regions. V O P dt R, For different material, the dependences of electron and V n P Z T l dVn hole drift velocities on electric field are different. For GaAs, - = G o - -+In Von InGaAs, InP, and InGaAsP, and other 111-V group compounds, dt R,
~

+ +

CHEN AND LIU: PIN AVALANCHE PHOTODIODES MODEL FOR CIRCUIT SIMULATION

2107

IJ

Fig. 2. PIN-APD circuit model.

where

Ion =

pin v,,
V O i

Pin I 0 2. -~ .
Because the dependences of minority carrier space distribution (MCSD) in the n and p regions on P,,, V,, V,, and time are very complicated, here, we assume that the MCSD only is a function of P,,, V,, and V , , does not explicitly include time, and P,,, V,, and V , are the functions of time at transient. V,, and V, is identical Thus, the MCSD as a function of P%n, for both steady-state and transient. So we can take I , and I , as the functions of Ptn, V,, and V, from the steady state (see the Appendix):

exp (-a,W,) - 1

Q,L~ [ch(

2)

+ a , exp (-a,W,)

- 11

where Ln and L, are the diffusion lengths of electron in the p region and hole in the n region, respectively. The current through APD is

where CT = Cs + C J , Cs is the parasitic capacitance, CJ = EOE,A/W~, E O is the vacuum permittivity, E , is the

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IEEE JOURNAL OF QUANTUM ELECTRONICS, VOL. 32, NO. 12, DECEMBER 1996

TABLE I1 PARAMETERS NEEDED IN PIN-APD MODEL Parameter &pm*) WnW) Wi(W) Value 12000 2 4.2 2 0.61 0.35 Parameter k(cm*/vs) o&ds) Fa(V/cm) Value 10500 io7 3500

-4

lo

>

300
1o7 1 0.2

0 30
30

0.2
5.2 260

0.8
3.3 x lo6 7.3 x 10" 5 x 10'8 5 x lo** 10'0 1.o

5.13 x lo7
1.95 x 106

7 . 3 io7
2.2 x 106

10-l0

1
12

10 20 3 0 P O 5 0 6 0 7 0 8 0 90

5
0.041

Reverso Bias (VI

Fig 3 Dark current as a function of reverse bias voltage from simulation and [25] The solid line is for simulation, and "*" is the result of [25] The breakdown voltage of this APD is 805 V
6
h

0.75

1.1

relative permittivity, A is the cross-section area perpendicular to field direction, and VJ is the junction voltage. I d is the sum of the tunneling current [23] and other parasitic leakage current and can be written as

4J

B
d)

d 4 I . (
- 3
I

"

$ 1
0
0
5 0 100 150 200 250 300 350 4 0 0 4 5 0 5 0 0

Time ( p a )

Here, the first term is for tunneling current and it dominates the dark current at high voltages, and the second term is for parasitic leakage current. mz is the effective mass of the electron, y depends on the detailed shape of the tunneling barrier and is on the order of unity for band-to-band processes, h is the Planck's constant divided by 2n, Eg is the energy gap, d is the parasitic leakage resistance. and R From (6)-(9), the circuit model for PIN-APD can be constructed (see Fig. 2). In Fig. 2, R, is the parasitic series resistance. There are three terminals in this model: two terminals are for the actual device, the third is for light input. It is worth mentioning that at dc analysis with this model the condition of vn& < 1 / 1/.mr ~ ~must ~ be satisfied, otherwise, the simulated results are not physical. In addition, the breakdown voltage can be determined from this condition. This model also can be used for quantum well and superlattice structure in the i region, but the ionization rate and drift velocity must take the averages [24]:

Fig. 4. 50 V.

10-ps pulse response. The wavelength is 0 61 pm, and the bias

IS

where 6 ,U , ', ' u b , W,, and Wb are the impact ionization rates, drift velocities, and widths for well and barrier, respectively.
1 1 1 . SIMULATION
As an example, an Ino.ssGa0 47As-InP PIN-APD 1251 has been simulated. Parameters needed in the model are mainly taken from [26], shown in Table I1 To test the circuit model, the simulated results of dark current and pulse response characteristics have been compared with the experiment results presented by [25], as shown in Figs. 3 and 4, respectively. In Fig. 3, it can be seen that the simulation agrees with the experiment. For lower bias, the dark current is dominated by diffusion current and parasitic leakage current, and for higher bias, the tunneling current plays an important role. The breakdown voltage of this detector is 80.5 V. For transient analysis, the input signal is a 10-ps Gaussian pulse, peak power is 1 mW, bias voltage is 50 V, and sampling resistance is 50 R illuminating through the p side. The simulated results agree with the report from [25],

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-2

10
10
-3
-4
-6

40

10

R
~ o - ~ w
20

10

. l J

g U 3

10-8

10

10
Dark Current
1 1 1 1 1 1 1

IO-
10-l0

0 0

10 20 30 4 0 5 0 6 0 70 8 0 90
Rovorso Bias ( V I
Fig. 5. Photocurrent versus reverse bias voltage for different incident light power.

100

200

300

400

500

Time (ps)
Fig. 7. 10-ps pulse response characteristics for different bias voltages. Peak power is 1 mW.

d?
Y

the bias increases from 55 V, the quantum efficiency sharply increases to 9457% at 80 V. The pulse responses for different bias voltages are shown in Fig. 7, under the conditions as used in Fig. 4. It can be seen that as the bias voltage increases, the amplitude of response curves increases and the EWHM increases, due to the avalanche effect. When the bias voltage is near the breakdown voltage, this detector cannot respond to such a short pulse. IV. CONCLUSION A circuit model for PIN-APD has been developed, under some reasonable assumptions. In this model, the optical quantity is replaced by equivalent circuit variable, therefore, the general electrical circuit simulation technique can be used for the simulation of OEIC with PIN-APD. The model can be added into the existing simulators and also can be used for the developing of OEIC CAA software.
APPENDIX

as shown in Fig. 4. The capacitance of this detector is small, and the effect of parasitic capacitance on response waveform cannot be ignored. The full widths at one-half maximum for C, = 1 and 1.5 pF are about 150 and 175 ps, respectively; 140 ps is obtained in [25]. From the above tests, the circuit model is capable of prehcting the characteristics of PIN-APD. In addition, we have done other simulations for this diode, as shown in Figs. 5-7. The photocurrent curves for different light powers are shown in Fig. 5. For a lower bias, all the photocurrent curves are flat, and only near the breakdown voltage do the curves go up as the bias increases, resulting from the tunneling dark current. Fig. 6 shows the quantum efficiency for 1-pW light power versus bias voltage. Here, the quantum efficiency is defined as the ratio of electron-hole pair number generated by incident light to incident photon number. When the bias voltage is less than 55 V, the quantum efficiency is a constant, about 40%. As

For a hole in the n region, the steady-state continuity equation [15] is

where D , = LE/rp is the hole diffusion coefficient, p , is the hole density, p,0 is the equilibrium hole density, pnO = n i / N d , and nn, and Nd are the intrinsic carrier density and net donor density, respectively. Similarly, for the p region, npo = nE/N,, and n,, and N , are the intrinsic carrier density and net acceptor density, respectively, in the p region:

Under the boundary conditions

z = 0:

p , = ph(0)

x=wn: p n = o

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IEEE JOURNAL OF QUANTUM ELECTRONICS, VOL. 32, NO. 12, DECEMBER 1996

np = nP0 CZ exp ( a p . )

[np(0) - npO - Cz exp ( -olPWp sinh ) ] - - (C2 sinh

-

w,
L,

L,

- X + npo)sinh W pL,
~

) exp (-anWn - alW,)apL~ c ;= Pin(1- RAhvDn(l - a:L2,)

the solution of (Al) is (A2), shown at the top of the page. Calculating

P, = A
and

(P,- pno) dz

and eliminating p,(O), the expressions in the text can be obtained. For electrons in the p region, there is a similar equation to (Al). The electron generation rate is

G, =

P,, (I - R)exp ( - a , A . hv
z=o:
z

W,- alWi)

ap exp ( - a p z ) .

The boundary conditions are

np=o

=w,: n, = n,(O)

and the solution is (A3), shown at the top of the page. Calculating

Np = A
and

(np - npO)dz

and eliminating n,(O), the expressions in the text can be obtained.

REFERENCES

[I] W T Tsang, Semiconductor and Semimetals London, U K Academic Press, 1985, vol 22, pt D, ch 1-3 [2] T. P. Pearsall and M Papuchon, The Gao 47Ino 53As homojunction photodiode-A new avalanche photodetector in the near infrared between l 0 and l 6 pm, Appl Phys. Lett., vol 33, no 7, pp 640-642, 1978 [3] N Susa, H Nakagome, H Ando, and H Kanbe, Characteristics in InGaAs/InP avalanche photodiodes with separated absorption and

multiplication regions, ZEEE J. Quantum Electron., vol. QE-17, pp. 243-254, 1981. [4] V. Diadiuk, S. H. Groves, C. E. Hurwitz, and G. W. Iseler, Low dark-current, high gain GaInAsDnP avalanche photodetector, IEEE J. Quantum Electron, vol. QE-17, pp. 260-263, 1981. [5] S. R. Forrest, R. G. Smith, and 0. K. a m , Performance of Ino.53Gao .47As/InP avalanche photodiodes, ZEEE J, Quantum Electron., vol. QE-18, pp. 2040-2048, 1982. [6] K. Matsuo, M. C. Teich, and B. E. A. Saleh, Noise properties and time response of the staircase avalanche photodiode, IEEE Trans. Electron Devices, vol. ED-32, pp. 2615-2623, 1985. [7] J. C. Campbell, W. T. Tsang, G. J. Qua, and B. C. Johnson, High-speed InP/InGaAsPDnGaAs avalanche photodiodes grown by chemical beam eptiaxy, ZEEE J. Quantum Electron., vol. 24, pp. 496-500, 1988. 181 P. Aristin, A. Torabi, A. K. Garrison, H. M. Harris, and C. J. Summers, New doped multiple-quantum-well avalanche photodiode: The doped barrier Al0.3sGao .6sAs/GaAs multiple-quantum-well avalanche photodiode, Appl. Phys. Lett., vol. 60, no. 1, pp. 85-87, 1992. [9] Y. Wang and K. F. Brennan, Design issues of GaAs and AlGaAs deltadoped p-i-n quantum-well APDs, IEEE J. Quantum Electron., vol. 30, pp. 1156-1162, 1994. [IO] V. Chandramouli, C. M. Maziar, and J. C. Campbell, Design considerations for high performance avalanche photodiode multiplication layers, ZEEE Trans. Electron Devices, vol. 41, pp. 648-654, 1994. [1 I] C. L. Forrest Ma, M. J. Deen, L. E. Tarof, and J. C. H. Yu, Temperature dependence of breakdown voltages in separate absorption, grading, charge, and multiplication InPDnGaAs avalanche photodiodes, IEEE Trans. Electron Devices, vol. 42, pp. 810-818, 1995. [I21 J. C. Campbell, S. Chandrasekhar, W. T. Tsang, G. J. Qua, and B . C. Johnson, Multiplication noise of wide-bandwidth InP/InGaAsP/InGaAs avalanche photodiodes, J. Lightwave Technol., vol. 7, pp. 473478, 1989. [I31 K. Brennan, Theory of the doped quantum well superlattice APD: A new solid-state photomultiplier, IEEE J. Quantum Electron., vol. QE-22, pp. 1999-2016, 1986.New York: CBS College Pub., 1141 . -A. Yariv. Ovtical Electronics, 3rd ed. 1985, pp. 367-380. [15] G. George and J. P. Krusius, Dynamic response of high-speed PIN and Schottky-barrier photodiode layers to nonuniform optical illumination, . I Lightwave . Technol., vol. 12, pp. 1387-1393, 1994. [16] L. Gaul and M. Claassen, Pulsed high-power operation of p+pnn+avalanche diodes near avalanche resonance for mm-wave oscillators, ZEEE Trans. Electron Devices, vol. 41, pp. 1310-1318, 1994. 1171 G. E. Stillman, C. M. Wolfe, J. A. Rossi, and A. G. Foyt, Unequal electron and hole impact ionization coefficients in GaAs, Appl. Phys. Lett., vol. 24, no. 10, pp. 471474, 1974. [18] T. P. Pearsall, R. E. Nahory, and M. A. Pollack, Impact ionization coefficients for electrons and holes in Ino.14Gao.86As, Appl. Phys. Lett., vol. 27, no. 6, pp. 330-332, 1975. [19] L. W. Cook, G. E. Bulman, and G. E. Stillman, Electron and hole impact ionization coefficients in InP determined by photo-multiplication measurements, Appl. Phys. Lett., vol. 40, no. 7, pp. 589-591, 1982.

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[20] T. P. Pearsall, Impact ionization rates for electrons and holes in

[21]
[22] [23] [24]
3, pp. 118-220, 1980. F. Capasso, K. Mohammed, K. Alavi, A. Y. Cho, and P. W. Foy, Impact Appl. Phys. ionization rates for electrons and holes in Alo.4~Ino.szAs, Lett., vol. 45, no. 9, pp. 968-970, 1984. Y. Takanashi and Y. Horikoshi, Ionization coefficient of InGaAsPhP APD, Jpn. J. Appl. Phys., vol. 18, no. 11, pp. 2173-2174, 1979. S . R. Forrest, Performance of In,Gai-,AsYP1-, photodiodes with dark current limited by diffusion, generation recombination, and tunneling, IEEE J. Quantum Electron., vol. QE-17, pp. 217-226, 1981. F. Capasso, W. T. Tsang, A. L. Hutchinson, and G. F. Williams, Enhancement of electron impact ionization in a superlattice: A new avalanche photodiode with a large ionization rate ratio, Appl. Phys. Lett., vol. 40, no. 1, pp. 3840, 1982. R. F. Leheny, R. E. Nahory, M. A. Pollack, E. D. Beebe, and J. C. de Winter, Characterization of Ino.53Gao.47As photodiodes exhibiting low dark current and low junction capacitance, IEEE J. Quantum Electron., vol. QE-17, pp. 227-231, 1981. T. P. Pearsall, GaInAsP Alloy Semiconductors. New York Wiley, 1982.
Ca,4TIn0,5JAS,Appl. P L y . k t t . , vol. 36,
no.

Shiyong Liu was born in Liaoning, R.O.C., on November 21, 1935 He received the B S degree from Jilin University, Changchun, R.O.C., in 1958. He is now a Professor at Jilin University and the Director of State Key Laboratories on National Integrated Optoelectronics in China. He has been engaged in research work on semiconductor optoelectronic devices, quantum-well devices, optoelectronic integrated circuit (OEIC), optical waveguide theory, CAD for OEIC and optical waveguide devices, and polymer light-emitting diodes.

[25]

[26]

Weiyou Chen was born in Jilin, R.O.C., on January 8, 1965. He received the B.S. and Ph.D. degrees in optoelectronics and computer aided-design from Jilin University, Changchun, R.O.C., in 1986 and 1992, respectively. In 1992, he joined National Integrated Optoelectronics Laboratories. He is now an Associate Professor at Jilin University. He has been engaged in research work on CAD for optoelectronic integrated circuit and optical waveguide devices.