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Silicon–Germanium Receivers for Short-Wave Nanophotonics 2021; 10(3): 1059–1079 Review Daniel Benedikovic*, Léopold Virot, Guy Aubin, Jean-Michel Hartmann, Farah Amar, Xavier Le Roux, Carlos Alonso-Ramos, Éric Cassan, Delphine Marris-Morini, Jean-Marc Fédéli, Frédéric Boeuf, Bertrand Szelag and Laurent Vivien Silicon–germanium receivers for short-wave- infrared optoelectronics and communications High-speed silicon–germanium receivers (invited review) https://doi.org/10.1515/nanoph-2020-0547 nanophotonic devices. Along with recent advances in sili- Received September 28, 2020; accepted November 25, 2020; con–germanium-based lasers and modulators, short- published online December 8, 2020 wave-infrared receivers are also key photonic chip ele- ments to tackle cost, speed and energy consumption Abstract: Integrated silicon nanophotonics has rapidly challenges of exponentially growing data traffics within established itself as intriguing research field, whose outlets next-generation systems and networks. Herein, we provide impact numerous facets of daily life. Indeed, nano- a detailed overview on the latest development in nano- photonics has propelled many advances in optoelec- photonic receivers based on silicon and germanium, tronics, information and communication technologies, including material processing, integration and diversity of sensing and energy, to name a few. Silicon nanophotonics device designs and arrangements. Our Review also em- aims to deliver compact and high-performance compo- phasizes surging applications in optoelectronics and nents based on semiconductor chips leveraging mature communications and concludes with challenges and per- fabrication routines already developed within the modern spectives potentially encountered in the foreseeable microelectronics. However, the silicon indirect bandgap, future. the centrosymmetric nature of its lattice and its wide transparency window across optical telecommunication Keywords: group-IV nanophotonicss; integrated opto- wavebands hamper the realization of essential function- electronics and communications; optical photodetector. alities, including efficient light generation/amplification, fast electro-optical modulation, and reliable photo- detection. Germanium, a well-established complement 1 Introduction material in silicon chip industry, has a quasi-direct energy band structure in this wavelength domain. Germanium and In the recent years, the appetite for data traffics was its alloys are thus the most suitable candidates for active heightened by the Internet era, social networks and functions, i.e. bringing them to close to the silicon family of streaming media by continuously calling upon faster and immediate connections between Internet of Things devices [1, 2]. However, needs of emerging data-intensive areas *Corresponding author: Daniel Benedikovic, Université Paris-Saclay, such as next-generation wireless and optical communica- CNRS Centre de Nanosciences et de Nanotechnologies, 91120, tions [3, 4], cloud storage and servers [5], high-performance Palaiseau, France; and Recently with Department Multimedia and computing [6], data centers [7], among others, are now Information-Communication Technologies, University of Žilina, 01008 exceeding the transmission capacity of traditional copper- Žilina, Slovakia, E-mail: [email protected]. based interconnects [8, 9]. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2239-0041 Léopold Virot, Jean-Michel Hartmann, Jean-Marc Fédéli and Bertrand Optical technologies are foreseen to alleviate the Szelag, University Grenoble Alpes and CEA, LETI, 38054 Grenoble, interconnection bottleneck of much slower metalized France electronic wires, as the former, proceed at speed of light, Guy Aubin, Farah Amar, Xavier Le Roux, Carlos Alonso-Ramos, Éric offer much larger bandwidth. Indeed, a growing number of Cassan, Delphine Marris-Morini and Laurent Vivien, Université Paris- optical solutions promises bountiful opportunities to be Saclay, CNRS, Centre de Nanosciences et de Nanotechnologies, cheaper in production, faster in operation, lower in 91120, Palaiseau, France Frédéric Boeuf, STMicroelectronics, Silicon Technology Development, latency, higher in bandwidth, while consuming far less 38923 Crolles, France energy, improving both thermal and power link budgets. Open Access. © 2020 Daniel Benedikovic et al., published by De Gruyter. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. 1060 D. Benedikovic et al.: Silicon–germanium receivers Albeit optical technologies, particularly optical fibers, photodetector integration with Si waveguides and Si have eliminated copper wires in the metro and long-haul complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) lines. links, and do progressively in last-mile access networks, We describe in Section 4, the core of this Review, the optical concepts have not completely replaced some elec- properties of cutting-edge Si–Ge photodetectors. We tronic interfaces within short-reach hierarchies [8–10]. notably focus on achievements in mainstream fiber-optics Of special interest to next-generation systems are the spectral bands and extended communication windows, points of access through Ethernet lines with electro- device arrangements for low-power and high-power sce- optical/opto-electrical interfaces and high connection narios, as well as current advances in attractive p-i-n and throughput. As Ethernet transmission speed is migrating avalanche structures. Finally, in Section 5, we conclude from 10 and 40 GE standards toward 100 GE and beyond with a discussion on maturity levels, challenges and [11–13], on-chip semiconductor nanophotonics becomes prospects of chip-integrated Si–Ge photodetectors. more prevalent in optical transceivers at both ends of the fiber-optic links [14]. Integrated nanophotonics, especially the branch made of crystalline group-IV semiconductors, is 2 Enabling materials for destined to play an essential role in modern computation, communication, and optoelectronics industries, fusing photodetection every facet of our digital life [15]. Recent breakthroughs in nanophotonics have showed a good potential to interlink The central mechanism harnessed for light detection is to electronics and photonics on single-chip circuits [16, 17], transduce impinging photons with given energy into while leveraging advanced microelectronics fabrication electrical signals, typically current or voltage, which can facilities [18]. Group-IV nanophotonics holds prospects to then be collected by an electronic readout circuitry. become a multi-functional platform with monolithic inte- Indeed, an efficient photon-to-electron conversion de- gration [19, 20], potentially supporting low-cost and high- pends on the electronic bandgap of the active material yield production at scales that enable market penetration used to that end [31–33]. Figure 1 shows spectral and [21]. So far, a wealth of basic building blocks has been bandgap energy dependence of the absorption coefficient developed, including low-loss and high-performance for several well-known semiconductors used in optical waveguides and devices [22, 23], silicon (Si)-based photodetectors. Accordingly, several pure or alloyed ma- [24–26] or germanium (Ge)-based [26–28] light sources, terials are presently used in a wide variety of optical high-speed optical modulators [29, 30], as well as photo- photodetectors. detectors [31–33]. These achievements will likely be step- ping stones to improve the performance of, and bringing novel functions to, monolithic group-IV-based platforms. Optical photodetectors are critical components in this environment. Early developments of Ge detectors go back to 1950s – 1970s [34–36]. Photodetectors are typically positioned at the end of an optical chain to convert a signal from optical to electrical. As the scale and diversity of photodetectors depend not only on the material system but also on the targeted applications, device performance criteria can differ depending on the available fabrication/ integration technologies [37]. On-chip optical receivers built upon Si and Ge semiconductors offer a set of levers to meet targets for cost-effective, bandwidth-enhanced and energy-aware applications in optoelectronics outlets as in computation and communication networks. In this Review, we discuss recent advances in the field of group-IV photodetectors, in particular those made out of Si and Ge/Ge-based alloys. We give in Section 2 a brief fi classi cation of materials conventionally harnessed for Figure 1: Absorption coefficient as a function of the wavelength and optical photodetection and present emerging materials. bandgap energy for several semiconductors typically harnessed in Section 3 details methods for Ge growth and the status of optical photodetectors. Figure adapted from a study by Virot [38]. D. Benedikovic et al.: Silicon–germanium receivers 1061 Si is an indirect bandgap semiconductor with an en- Photodiodes based on indium phosphide (InP), gallium ergy bandgap of 1.12 eV. This hampers both efficient light arsenide (GaAs), indium gallium arsenide, and indium emission and detection at attractive near-infrared and gallium arsenide phosphide are the standard bearers that short-wave-infrared (SWIR) wavelengths, 1.3 and 1.55 µm. have been in place for decades and dominate the markets. Although Si photodiodes are broadly used in the visible In the last years, integration of III–V hetero-structures with spectrum [39], their operation is rather limited above the Si CMOS platforms [57, 58] picked up steam, with chip-to- indirect-band edge
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