Revolutionary Photoreceivers Based on Combining Si-MOS Process with SiGe Nanotechnology

Voxtel, Inc. proposes to optimize the design of a SiGe quantum dot (QD) detector capable of 1300nm and 1550nm response, with good responsivity at zero volt bias voltage, and with low dark current. The proposed SiGe quantum dot detectors makes it feasible to integrate long wavelength near infrared optoelectronic devices into CMOS chips, fabricated on commercial CMOS processes. Embedding SiGe nanostructures, i.e. very narrow films, islands and clusters, into heterostructures deposited on Si wafers open new routes for a variety of Si devices monolithic integration of opto-electronic on Si, and the proposed effort, by developing the low temperature growth processes necessary for commercial CMOS integration, characterizing the electrical and optical characteristics of the SiGe QDs, as well as stacked QD layers, and interfacing to Voxtel's existing high speed Si CMOS photoreceiver circuits makes significant strides to achieving the goals of low cost, silicon-compatible NIR photoreceivers.