High-speed and high-power modified uni-traveling carrier photodiode with an electric field control layer

Abstract

A modified uni-traveling carrier photodiode (MUTC-PD) with an electric field control layer is proposed. The novel MUTC-PD can achieve high-speed and high-power performance at a lower bias voltage. The insertion of the electric field control layer can change the electric field distribution in the depletion region at a fixed bias voltage. It is beneficial for reducing power consumption, relieving the limitation of heat dissipation on the high-power performance, and suppressing the space-charge effect. In the simulation, the 20-μm-diameter device reaches an RF output power of 23.9 dBm at 20 GHz. Compared with the original structure without the electric field control layer, the junction capacitance of the novel device is decreased from 73.7 fF to 54.7 fF, and the 3-dB bandwidth is increased from 29.5 GHz to 37.5 GHz at a reverse bias of 2 V.