Low power consumption and high-speed Ge receivers

A new Si/Ge/Si heterojunction based waveguide photodetector has been demonstrated in order to reduce the fabrication cost, increase the responsivity, and improve process robustness. State of the art characteristics in terms of dark current, responsivity and bandwidth have been obtained. Furthermore, such photodetectors were characterized in avalanche mode in order to improve the sensitivity and reduce the overall power consumption of the optical circuit.