GeSn Avalanche Photodiode

In this project, Akrtonics proposes to develop a novel Si based revolutionary infrared sensor technology potentially offering monolithic integration of CMOS circuits with a high-performance detector array made from an emerging group-IV alloy.  The proposed sensing materials, SiGeSn semiconducting alloys, have spectral sensitivity that potentially covers a broad wavelength range from SWIR, MWIR, to LWIR.  The resulted sensor array could be manufactured using standard IC industry techniques for high volume production, high reliability, and low cost.  The technology could be disruptive for our targeted markets such as autonomous driving and IR imaging.  The enabled LiDAR/LADAR solution for autonomous driving offers advantages over the state-of-art including eye safety, range performance, background immunity, atmospheric transmission, reliability, and cost.  The envisioned sensor for IR imaging offers a potential 10,000 fold cost reduction compared with its counter parts using III-V and II-VI materials yet maintains similar performance and can scale up to large array size.  The specifically tailored device structure to be developed in this project is a GeSn/Si avalanche photodiode (APD) using an architecture of separate absorption and charge multiplication.  The proposed research activities include device modeling, high quality material growth, and high performance GeSn PD and APD development.