Bandwidth enhancement of MgZnO-based MSM photodetectors by inductive gain peaking

For high-speed optical communication applications, the bandwidth of photodetector would be a key limitation. In this work, the bandwidth property of MgZnO-based Metal-Semiconductor-Metal (MSM) photodetector considering RC and transit limitations is investigated on the basis of the series and enhanced gain peaked photodetector circuits proposed by us with different finger widths. To ensure the accuracy of parameters, the high-filed transportation characteristics of MgZnO are investigated by a three-valley ensemble Monte Carlo simulation combined with first principle calculations. The results show that the gain peaking technique, especially the enhanced gain peaking, can improve the bandwidth of MgZnO MSM photodetector to a maximum value of 61.28 GHz, corresponding to a bandwidth enhancement of 49% without undesired effects. Three-dimensional electromagnetic computation is further performed to design and simulate the on-chip-inductor. The value of the simulated inductor is approximately 0.0529 nH, which is in good agreement with the designed value of 0.0569 nH. This work benefits the development of high speed MgZnO MSM photodetector.