Design of ultrawide-band, high-sensitivity p-i-n photodetectors

We show the design of the bandwidth and the external quantum efficiency (including the coupling efficiency to a single-mode fiber) of p-i-n photodetectors. Based on their design procedures, the performance limits of both conventional surface-illuminated photodetectors and side-illuminated photodetectors are evaluated. We point out that in the ultrawide-band region, optical waveguide photodetectors have great advantages over conventional surface-illuminated photodetectors in terms of the product of the bandwidth and the external quantum efficiency. It is shown that a 100-GHz bandwidth can be achieved with little degradation of the external quantum efficiency by a multimode waveguide photodetector structure. We also present a design concept for overcoming the performance limits of solitary waveguide photodetectors by including an input tapered optical waveguide.