Uniform and high performance of monolithically integrated 1/spl times/12 array of planar GaInAs photodiodes

In this article, we describe the fabrication of a monolithically integrated 1/spl times/12 array of GaInAs/InP planar photodiodes, which has highly uniform characteristics in dark current, capacitance and crosstalk capacitance, quantum efficiency, and the frequency bandwidth at 3-dB reduction with a deviation of /spl plusmn/1%. Besides, each diode on the array exhibits an extremely low dark current of 75 pA, a low capacitance of /spl sim/2.3 pF and a crosstalk capacitance between adjacent diodes of /spl sim/0.36 pF, a high quantum efficiency of 95% at 1.3 /spl mu/m and 89% at 1.53 /spl mu/m, the 3-dB frequency of >2 GHz, and a small 1/f noise component over a wide operating voltage range. Also, the diode on the array has a negligible degradation after the burn-in test of -20 V, 200/spl deg/C, and 20 h.