Photodiodes in deep submicron CMOS process for fully integrated optical receivers

This paper explores the performance of CMOS photodiodes in a deep submicron CMOS technology to be used in fully integrated optical receiver intended for short range optical communication. For this purpose different structures of n-well/p-substrate photodiode were fabricated in 65nm CMOS process. When characterized at 850nm wavelength, DC responsivities between 0.12 and 0.16 A/W and 3-dB bandwidths of about 6 MHz with a roll-off of about 5.5dB/decade were measured. These results are important when designing the transimpedance amplifier and equalizer of a fully integrated optical receiver. A simple optical receiver is designed using results from these investigations.