What's in store for silicon photoreceivers?

Today's new "electronic" products are increasingly relying on a combination of electrical, optical, mechanical, and biochemical technologies for smaller size, higher levels of integration, enhanced performance, and versatility based on D. Cristea et al. (2000) and H.H. Kim et al. (1994). The last decade has seen the invention, refinement, and volume production of compact, high-performance silicon-based photoreceivers. Consisting of a photodetector (PD) and an amplifier, photoreceivers or photodetector integrated circuits (PDICs) are currently in great demand for the optical communication, optical sensory, and optical storage sectors. These key markets are driving the rapid commercialization of optical and silicon-based semiconductor technologies. The industry has been experiencing explosive sales in CD/DVD systems and is gearing up for a progressive increase in market size with the recent introduction of the BD system prototypes. The optical storage market is driving the demand for photoreceivers built in a CMOS or BiCMOS technology. In time, the BD system will most likely replace the CD and current DVD systems. However, for the foreseeable future, the standard for BD systems will require that they be able to read the 650-nm DVDs and 780-nm CDs. Today, the PIN photodiode principles of operation are fairly well understood, and the process methods for designing them have been thoroughly researched throughout this past decade. Novel process structures are conceivable in the future, but one is most likely to see new process integration schemes, photodiode design layouts, and amplifier circuit architectures.