Light absorption apparatus

• US 9,748,307 B2
• Filed: 11/13/2015
• Issued: 08/29/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 11/13/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Artilux, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Artilux, Inc.
• Inventors: Cheng, Szu-Lin, Liu, Han-Din, Chen, Shu-Lu
• Primary Examiner(s): Ahmad, Khaja
• Application Number:
  US14/940,572
• Publication Number:
  US 20160141329A1
• Time in Patent Office: 655 Days
• Field of Search: None
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 27/1461 characterised by the photosensitive area
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 27/14612 involving a transistor
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 27/1463 Pixel isolation structures
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 27/14685 Process for coatings or optical elements
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 27/1469 Assemblies, i.e. hybrid integration
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 31/02161 for devices characterised by at least one potential jump barrier or surface barrier
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 31/022408 for devices characterised by at least one potential jump barrier or surface barrier
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 31/028 including, apart from doping material or other impurities, only elements of Group IV of the Periodic Table
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 31/036 characterised by their crystalline structure or particular orientation of the crystalline planes
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 31/105 the potential barrier being of the PIN type
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 31/18 Processes or apparatus specially adapted for the manufacture or treatment of these devices or of parts thereof
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 31/1808 including only Ge
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 31/1868 Passivation
• CPC Class Codes: Y02E 10/50 Photovoltaic [PV] energy
• CPC Class Codes: Y02P 70/50 Manufacturing or production processes characterised by the final manufactured product

Abstract

A light absorption apparatus includes a substrate, a light absorption layer above the substrate on a first selected area, a silicon layer above the light absorption layer, a spacer surrounding at least part of the sidewall of the light absorption layer, an isolation layer surrounding at least part of the spacer, wherein the light absorption apparatus can achieve high bandwidth and low dark current.

Claims

1. A method of forming a light absorption apparatus, the method comprising:

doping a surface of a substrate to form a doped layer in the substrate; and

forming, atop the doped layer, a photosensitive structure that includes (1) a counter doping layer at or near the bottom of the photosensitive structure; and

(2) a dopant control layer atop the counter doping layer, wherein the dopant control layer has a material that retards dopant diffusion from the counter doping layer into an intrinsic layer in the photosensitive structure, and wherein the substrate is silicon based, and wherein both the counter doping layer and the intrinsic layer is germanium based.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the dopant control layer is located in between the counter doping layer and the intrinsic layer.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein said material is one or more of:

silicon (Si), silicon germanium (SiGe) with a germanium (Ge) content less than the intrinsic layer, carbon-doped SiGe, or carbon-doped Ge.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein a material for the counter doping layer is one or more of:

highly-doped Ge, or highly-doped SiGe with a Ge content no less than the dopant control layer.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein a heterogeneous interface between the substrate and the photosensitive structure has a lattice mismatch more than 0.2%.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

forming another dopant control layer atop the intrinsic layer.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the counter doping layer includes dopants to compensate for a built-in electrical potential at a heterogeneous interface between the photosensitive structure and the substrate.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the dopants in the counter doping layer are configured to provide similar free carrier concentration to built-in carriers in a photosensitive material in the counter doping layer but with opposite electrical polarity.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

forming a stopping layer above the photosensitive structure;

forming a dielectric layer atop the stopping layer;

planarizing a wafer carrying the light absorption apparatus by removing the dielectric layer, wherein the planarizing step is to stop at the stopping layer; and

forming a reflector layer above the photosensitive structure.

10. The method of claim 1, the method further comprising:

after mesa patterning for the photosensitive structure, performing a selective etching process to remove at least a portion of the intrinsic layer damaged by reactive ion etching performed during the forming of the photosensitive structure.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the selective etching process is with a selectivity of at least 1:

5, the selectivity being a ratio of polish rate of silicon to germanium.

12. A light absorption apparatus comprising:

a substrate having a doped layer; and

a photosensitive structure atop the doped layer, the photosensitive structure including (1) a counter doping layer at or near the bottom of the photosensitive structure; and

(2) a dopant control layer atop the counter doping layer, wherein the dopant control layer has a material that retards dopant diffusion from the counter doping layer into an intrinsic layer in the photosensitive structure,

wherein the substrate is silicon based, and wherein both the counter doping layer and the intrinsic layer is germanium based.

13. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein the dopant control layer is located in between the counter doping layer and the intrinsic layer.

14. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein said material is one or more of:

silicon (Si), silicon germanium (SiGe) with a germanium (Ge) content less than the intrinsic layer, carbon-doped SiGe, or carbon-doped Ge.

15. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein a material for the counter doping layer is one or more of:

highly-doped Ge, or highly-doped SiGe with a Ge content no less than the dopant control layer.

16. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein a heterogeneous interface between the substrate and the photosensitive structure has a lattice mismatch more than 0.2%.

17. The apparatus of claim 12, further comprising:

another dopant control layer atop the intrinsic layer.

18. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein the counter doping layer includes dopants to compensate for a built-in electrical potential at a heterogeneous interface between the photosensitive structure and the substrate.

19. The apparatus of claim 18, wherein the dopants in the counter doping layer are configured to provide similar free carrier concentration to built-in carriers in a photosensitive material in the counter doping layer but with opposite electrical polarity.

20. The apparatus of claim 12, further comprising:

a stopping layer above the photosensitive structure.