Defect passivation and dark count in Geiger-mode avalanche photodiodes

Author

Jackson, J.C. ; Healy, G. ; Kelleher, A.M. ; Alderman, J. ; Donnelly, J. ; Hurley, P.K. ; Morrison, A.P. ; Mathewson, A.

Author_Institution

NMRC, Cork, Ireland

fYear

2003

fDate

30 March-4 April 2003

Firstpage

586

Lastpage

587

Abstract

An experimental study of post metal anneal conditions on dark count in Geiger-mode avalanche photodiodes (GM-APD) has been performed. The GM-APD structure will be shown to be extremely sensitive to post-metal anneals. Dark counts from measured samples decreased by a factor of two for each separate anneal in forming gas using temperatures from 425°C to 450°C. Conversely anneals of 250°C in ambient increased dark count for temperature cycles up to 124 hours. Passivation and de-passivation of defect sites within the shallow junction active area are suspected as mechanisms contributing to the variations in dark count.

Keywords

annealing; avalanche photodiodes; passivation; photon counting; semiconductor device reliability; 0 to 124 hour; 250 C; 425 to 450 C; Geiger-mode avalanche photodiodes; dark count; defect passivation; defect site de-passivation; defect site passivation; forming gas anneal; post metal anneal conditions; reliability; shallow junction active area; single photon counting; Annealing; Avalanche photodiodes; Bonding; CMOS process; Circuit testing; Detectors; Electric variables measurement; Passivation; Temperature sensors; Thickness measurement;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Reliability Physics Symposium Proceedings, 2003. 41st Annual. 2003 IEEE International

Print_ISBN

0-7803-7649-8

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/RELPHY.2003.1197818

Filename

1197818