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1046 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON NUCLEAR SCIENCE, VOL. 56, NO.

3, JUNE 2009

Design and Simulation Result of N Substrate Reverse


Type Avalanche Photodiode (APD)
M. H. Mun, S. W. Jung, Heedong Kang, Dosung Kim, H. J. Kim, Sang Hoon Lee, and H. Park

Abstract—We present results of design and simulation of the drift towards pn junction reaching the region of high electric
n-substrate reverse type avalanche photodiode (APD), which field, where they acquire enough energy to generate new carriers
internally amplifies the photocurrent by an avalanche process, by the process of impact ionization. The resulting avalanche
with the diffusion and the epitaxial methods.
produces the internal gain.
We aim to develop the APD which is coupled with scintillating
materials for X-ray and -ray detections. The purpose of this The growing interest in applications of APDs in experi-
simulation is to investigate optimal design parameters including mental physics and nuclear medicine [2]-[4] prompted recently
guarding of the reverse type APD to meet device performance an intensive study of device performance in scintillation de-
requirement as one of detector components. These optimized tection. Groups associated with the compact muon solenoid
conditions obtained from simulation study can be applied in
(CMS) experiment at CERN [5] and with the development
fabrication of the reverse type APD.
In this simulation, both process and device simulations of APDs of a positron emission tomography (PET) scanner have done
have been done by using a 2D simulation package, Athena much work on characterization of Hamamatsu APDs. New
and reverse reach-through APDs produced by EG&G have been
Atlas, from Silvaco International. The n-substrate reverse type proposed for PET scanners as well [6]. Also, RMD Inc. has
APD based on the optimized design parameters will be fabricated
announced an improved structure of large area APDs replacing
and tested in near future.
the beveled-edge construction by a planar one [7].
Index Terms—Avalanche process, gain, photodiode, PMT.
Generally, p-substrate reverse type APD is used but
we
I. INTRODUCTION
are using new n-substrate reverse type avalanche photodiode
OR many years, scintillation detection has been based al- (APD). This structure has the advantage of low noise and

F most exclusively on the light readout by photomultipliers


(PMT). The scintillation detection is an important technique in
guard-ring for the breakdown prevention. We present results of
simulation of the n-substrate reverse type APD for the detection
research, medicine and industry fields. High gain, low noise and of visible light from scintillator crystals by using the process
fairquantumefficiencyofthePMTsallowedthemtobeusedwith simulation tool, ATHENA [8], and device simulation tool,
different scintillators. For some selected applications, mainly in ATLAS [9], from Silvaco International.
high-energy physics, the photodiode has been proposed and suc-
cessfully applied with inorganic scintillators [1]. A positive-in- II. AVALANCHE P HOTODIODE (APD)
trinsic-negative (PIN) photodiode is a compact, monolithic de-
The operation principle of the APD is based on the con-
vice many times smaller and lighter than a typical PMT. Its high
version of the energy of the photon into free charge carrier
quantum efficiency, often many times higher than that of PMTs,
in
allows detecting light signals by using only the gain of the ex-
the semiconductor bulk and their further multiplication via the
ternal electronics. However, device applications require special
process of impact ionization. The basic element of the structure
low-noise preamplifiers and are limited to the slow detection
is the pn junction. One incident photon is sufficient to cause
systems operating with relatively strong light signals.
an avalanche breakdown. Under ideal conditions almost every
The avalanche photodiode (APD) combines the benefits of
incident photon is absorbed, creating a electron-hole pair. Both
both the PIN photodiode and the PMT: high quantum efficiency
carriers are accelerated under the influence of a strong electrical
and internal gain. The APD is a strongly reverse-biased diode
field. Upon region
multiplication acceleration the is
of the APD carriers
betweencontinuously
2 collide with
and
with a large junction electric field. Absorbed photons are con-
the lattice structure.. The typical value of the electric field in the
3.5
verted into an electron-hole primary carrier pairs. The carriers
The ideal APD would have zero dark noise, no excess noise,
broad spectral and frequency response, a gain range from 1 to
Manuscript received June 30, 2008; revised October 17, 2008. Current version
or more, and low cost. More simply, an ideal APD would
published June 10, 2009.This work was supported in part by the Korea Research
Foundation Grant by Korea Government (KRF-2007-314-C00059) and Basic be a good photodiode with high gain. In reality, however, this is
Atomic Energy Research Institute (BAERI) program. difficult to achieve because of the need to trade-off conflicting
M. H. Mun, H. J. Kim, S. W. Jung, H. Kang, S. H. Lee, and H. Park are with
design requirement.
the Department of Physics, Kyungpook National University, Daegu 702-701,
Korea (e-mail: hongjoo@ knu.ac.kr). The reverse type APD is specifically designed to couple with
D. Kim is with the Department of Physics Education, Daegu University, scintillators. This type is quite similar to the reach-through
Daegu 712-714, Korea.
APD, but the narrow high field multiplying region has been
Color versions of one or more of the figures in this paper are available online
at http://ieeexplore.ieee.org. moved to the front from surface of the device [10]. Since most
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TNS.2008.2012258 of scintillators emit light of 500 nm wavelength or less, most of

0018-9499/$25.00 © 2009 IEEE


MUN et al.: DESIGN AND SIMULATION RESULT OF N SUBSTRATE REVERSE TYPE AVALANCHE PHOTODIODE (APD) 1047

Fig. 2. A simulation result of photon entrance window formation by


Fig. 1. A schematic diagram of our proposed n-substrate reverse type avalanche 30 keV BF implantation through screen oxide. The wafer is annealed at 950 C
using
photodiode. for 5 minutes after the implantation process. p region is defined as window
depth.

light from scintillators are absorbed within the first 1-3 microns
of the depletion layer and generate electrons which undergo B. Epitaxial Method
full multiplication. Whereas most of the dark current under- The starting material is comprised of high resistivity
goes only hole multiplication, reducing the noise contribution and orientation n-type substrate. The
significantly. first step is etching 12.00 from the surface. The pn junc-
tion is created by three epitaxial layers (
III. PROCESS SIMULATION OF APD , ,
) which are grown one after the other and an ad-
We simulate the reverse type APD on n-type wafer. The sim-
ditional drive-in step (950 , 120 min). The layer is formed
ulated bulk material is a 380 thick n-type silicon wafer. The
by forth epitaxial growing and an an-
resistivity of the wafer is assumed to be 5 (concentration
nealing step (950 , 5 min). layer (0.061 )
8.98 ). Since the fixed oxide charge and the
needed not only for The the anti-reflection but also for the passi- is
face trapped charge inter-
in wafer are larger than those in
vation. To make region, a concentration of 5.0
wafer, we choose the wafer for the simulation study. The
phosphorus (30 keV) is implanted on the back-side of the wafer.
device can be a five - or six -
The purpose of this layer is twofold. It provides a
structures. Fig. 1 shows a -structure layer of our proposed six-layer,
good
n-substrate reverse type APD.
ohmic contact from the aluminum to the substrate and simul-
We simulate fabrication process with ATHENA to decide the
taneously allows operation of the device in overdepleted mode.
depth and profile of doping, and the thickness of screen oxide
and window. ATLAS simulation tool is used to check the elec- C. Diffusion Method
tric field distribution, the concentration of holes and electrons,
A buried pn junction of the reverse type APD was formed by
the quantum efficiency and the gain of the simulated device.
implantation and diffusion processes. First, the screen oxide is
A. Entrance Window grown. The screen oxide will not protect against damage to the
silicon lattice by the implanted ions, but it will protect against
The thickness of the photon entrance window is minimized to
chemical or mechanical damage during handling. Following,
collect the generated electrons effectively before the loss via re-
the deep
planting p-n with
carefully junction inside
controlled the (1.0
phosphorus device is formed by,
combination with holes in non-depleted region. B and im- keV) and boron (1.0
200 , 200 keV) concentrations
are some of the most popular projectiles for formation. En-
and an additional annealing step , 600 min).
trance window of thickness smaller than 100 nm is highly desir- (1200layer is formed by a implantation Theand subsequent
able because of the short absorption length of wave-
annealing step (950 , 5 min). The layer (0.061 ) is
length photon at which spectra of many scintillation crystals
needed for anti-reflection and passivation. To make ohmic con-
have emission peak.
tact, a concentration of 5.0 phosphorus (30 keV)
has an advantage over boron because its larger mass re-
is
sults in a shorter range for a given energy. For the window for- implanted on the back-side of the wafer.
mation 30 keV was implanted through the screen oxide of
various thicknesses and then the wafer was annealed at 950
IV. DEVICE SIMULATION
for 5 minutes. Then, the screen oxide was stripped. Fig. 2 is
the simulation results for depths of the entrance window before These simulations were the structures finite in extent. Simu-
and after annealing process, respectively. The simulation result lation results of net doping profiles and electric field of n-sub-
shows that window of about 100 nm thickness can be achieved strate reverse type APD are shown in Fig. 3. The pn
through 50 nm screen oxide layer. junction
of the device made by the epitaxial method is located at nearly
9.5 deep from the surface. The obtained maximum electric
1048 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON NUCLEAR SCIENCE, VOL. 56, NO. 3, JUNE 2009

Fig. 3. Net doping profile and electric field of reverse type APD by epitaxial
method (a) and diffusion method (b). The pn junction is nearly 9.5 3
m
(a) and 3.3 3 (b) from the surface. The maximum of electric field is
m
3.14 _10 V cm
= , at 190 V (a) and electric field is = _10 V cm Fig. 4. Signal current (lower curves) and multiplication factor (upper curves) as
at
370 V (b). 2.89 a function of reverse bias. In case of epitaxial method (a) two different intensities
of light (1.0 _10 W cm
= and 1.0 _10 W cm
= ) are shown. Diffusion
method (b) four different annealing times (each 300, 360, 420, 480 minutes
annealing time) are shown. The wavelength of photon is 500 nm.
field is 3.14 , when the bias voltage of 190 V was
applied. The pn junction depth by the diffusion method shows
about 3.3 , and electric field is 2.89 For the simulation of amplified signal current and
at 370 V. the
The current distribution as a function of bias voltages is gain, appropriate intensity of light is on the order of
shown in Fig. 4. The breakdown voltage is defined as the about
voltage in which the current exceeds 100 . In case 1.0 for radiation detection.
of epi- Because of lim-
taxial method, the breakdown voltage is around 280 V. itation on the accuracy of floating point numbers in
The the
breakdown voltage of the APD annealed for 480 minutes simulation tool [9], much higher intensity of light such as
is was used for the simulation as shown in
410 V. Atlas does not work well at or above the breakdown; in Fig. 4. The dark current is too small for the simulation tool to
the figures all currents past the breakdown are meaningless and handle properly.
the curves should be stopped at Vb. Quantum efficiency (Q.E) is defined as the ratio of the number
Fig. 4 also shows the APD gain as with different bias voltage. of photons contributing to the photo current to the total number
The
wheregain Gisis cathode
defined current
by and is available photo current. of incidentisphotons.
where It is given
the responsivity in by
A/W, is the wavelength in nm,
The gain of for wavelength of 500 nm photon is achieved is the Planck constant ), is the speed
at 220V reverse bias (epitaxial device) and at 370 V (diffusion (6.63 of
), and e is the electron
method with annealing time of 480 minutes). light in a vacuum (3 charge
(1.6 ).
MUN et al.: DESIGN AND SIMULATION RESULT OF N SUBSTRATE REVERSE TYPE AVALANCHE PHOTODIODE (APD) 1049

Fig. 5. External quantum efficiency as function of the wavelength for the APD made by epitaxial method.

Fig. 6. Responsivity of the APD made by epitaxial method as a function of incident photon wavelength.

This difference is critical for photon wavelengths beyond 800


External quantum efficiency is calculated by defined as nm, where the majority of the photons will be absorbed deep in
the the device. I presume this explains the rapid fall in responsivity
ratio of the number of photons contributing to the photo current
for longer wavelengths as displayed in Fig. 6 relative to the ex-
to the total number of incident photons. It is given by
ternal quantum efficiency as displayed in Fig. 5.

rent. External quantum efficiency of the APD fabricated with the V. CONCLUSION
where is source photo current and is available photo cur-
epitaxial method is shown in Fig. 5. The maximum quantum ef-
The process and device simulations were performed to
ficiency achieved is up to 0.8.
The responsivity of an optical detector is a measure of find
its optimal design parameters suitable for the physics requirement
response to radiation at a specified wavelength. Fig. 6 of the planned detector component so that these optimized con-
shows ditions can be applied to actual manufacturing of the
spectral responsivity of the device. The device is most sensitive sensor.
in the 400 nm-1000 nm spectral range and cover the The ATHENA and ATLAS package tools were used to
visible simu-
region. The peak responsivity of the device is . late fabrication process and device characteristics, respectively.
Some photons are absorbed above the avalanche region and We simulated the n-substrate reverse type avalanche photodiode
others below it. The photons absorbed above the avalanche re- (APD) with the epitaxial and the diffusion methods. We studied
gion will have their signal electrons multiplied. Photons ab- and consequently checked their electrical characteristics such
sorbed below the avalanche region will have their holes as gain, break-down voltage, external quantum efficiency and
pass responsivity.
through the avalanche region. The multiplication factor for holes The pn junction of the device made by the epitaxial and diffu-
is often less than that for electrons. sionmethodsislocatedatapproximately9.5 and3.3 deep
1050 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON NUCLEAR SCIENCE, VOL. 56, NO. 3, JUNE 2009

fromthesurface,respectively.Thebreakdownoccurseach280V [3] Britvitch et al., "Avalanche photodiodes now and possible develop-
(epitaxial method), 410 V (diffusion method with annealing time ments," NIM A535, pp. 523-527, 2004.
[4] D. Renker, "Properties of avalanche photodiodes for applications in
of 480 minutes), respectively. In case of epitaxial method, the high energy physics, astrophysics, and medical imaging," NIM A486,
maximumquantumefficiencyachievedisupto0.8andthedevice pp. 164-169, 2002.
is mostsensitive in the 400 nm-1000 nm spectral range. [5] J. Pansarat, Nucl. Instr. Meth., vol. A 389 (, pp. 186-186, 1997.
[6] R. Lecomte, C. Pepin, D. Rouleau, A. Saoudi, M. S. Andreaceo, M.
We will fabricate n-substrate reverse type APD based on this
Casey, R. Nutt, H. Dautet, and P. P. Webb, IEEE Trans. Nucl. Sci., vol.
simulation study. 45, pp. 478-478, 1998.
[7] R. Farrell, K. Shah, K. Vanderpuye, R. Graziaso, R. Myers, and G.
Entine, Nucl. Instr. Meth., vol. A 442, pp. 171-171, 2000.
REFERENCES
[8] ATHENA User's Manual -2D Process Simulation Software Silvaco,
[1] F. K. Glenn, Radiation Detection and Measurement. New York: 2002.
Wiley, 1999. [9] ATLAS User's Manual—Device Simulation Software Silvaco, 2002.
[2] C. Schmelz, S. M. Bradbury, I. Holl, E. Lorenz, D. Renker, and S. [10] R. Lecomte, C. Martel, and C. Carrier, Nucl. Instr. Meth., vol. A 278,
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