Waveguide-coupled detector in zero-change complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor

We report a waveguide-coupled photodetector realized in a standard CMOS foundry without requiring changes to the process flow (zero-change CMOS). The photodetector exploits carrier generation in the silicon-germanium normally utilized as stressor in pFETs. The measured responsivity and 3dB bandwidth are of 0.023A/W at a wavelength of 1180nm and 32GHz at -1V bias (18GHz at 0V bias). The dark current is less than 10pA and the dynamic range is larger than 60dB.