Fast Ge p-i-n Photodetectors on Si

We report about a top-side illuminated Ge photodetector, which is appropriate for transmission of high-speed data at infrared telecommunication wavelengths and is monolithically integrated on a standard Si substrate (Jutzi et al., 2005) for 1552 nm operation. A 3-dB-bandwidth of 38.9 GHz is achieved for a 10 mum diameter detector and a reverse bias of 2 V. These results demonstrate the potential of SiGe photodiodes for Si based optical links at data rates up to 40 Gbit/s and beyond