Application Note AN-LD17 Rev.

Photodiode Basics:
Selection & Operation
January, 2020
Page 1

WHAT IS A PHOTODIODE? positive potential on the Cathode, and the holes will
move toward the negative potential on the Anode. These
A photodiode is a semiconductor device with moving charge carriers form the current (photocurrent) in
a P-N junction that converts photons (or light) the photodiode. Figure 1 shows the different layers of a
into electrical current. The P layer has an photodiode (P-N Junction) as well as multiple connection
abundance of holes (positive), and the N layer points on top and bottom.
has an abundance of electrons (negative). Photodiodes
can be manufactured from a variety of materials including, The depletion region creates a capacitance in the
but not limited to, Silicon, Germanium, and Indium Gallium photodiode where the boundaries of the region act as the
Arsenide. Each material uses different properties for cost plates of a parallel plate capacitor. Capacitance is inversely
benefits, increased sensitivity, wavelength range, low noise proportional to the width of the depletion region. Reverse
levels, or even response speed. bias voltage also influences the capacitance of the region.

Figure 1 shows a cross section of a typical photodiode. A

Depletion Region is formed from diffusion of electrons from KEY PERFORMANCE SPECIFICATIONS
the N layer to the P layer and the diffusion of holes from
the P layer to the N layer. This creates a region between There are four major parameters used in choosing the
the two layers where no free carriers exist. This develops a right photodiode and whether or not to reverse bias the
built-in voltage to create an electric field across the depletion photodiode.
region. This allows for current to flow only in one direction • Response (speed/time) of the photodiode is determined
(Anode to Cathode). The photodiode can be forward biased, by the capacitance of the P-N junction. It is the time
but current generated will flow in the opposite direction. This needed for charge carriers to cross the P-N junction.
is why most photodiodes are reversed biased or not biased This is directly affected by the width of the depletion
at all. Some photodiodes cannot be forward biased without region.
damage.
• Responsivity is the ratio of photocurrent generated from
A photon can strike an atom within the device and release incident light, to that incident light power. This is usually
an electron if the photon has enough energy. This creates expressed in units of A/W (current over power). A
an electron-hole pair (e- and h+) where a hole is simply an typical responsivity curve of a photodiode will show A/W
“empty space” for an electron. If photons are absorbed as a function of wavelength. This is called Quantum
in either the P or N layers, the electron hole pairs will be Efficiency.
recombined in the materials as heat if they are far enough
away (at least one diffusion length) from the depletion • Dark current is the current in the photodiode when
region. Photons absorbed in the depletion region (or close there is no incident light. This can be one of the main
to it) will create electron hole pairs that will move to opposite sources of noise in the photodiode system. Photocurrent
ends due to the electric field. Electrons will move toward the from background radiation can also be included in
this measurement. Photodiodes are usually put into
SiO2
Anode (+)
an enclosure that does not allow any light to hit the
AR Coating
photodiode to measure the dark current. Because the
P+ Active Area
Depletion Region
current generated by the photodiode can be very small,
dark current levels can obscure the current produced by
N- Type Substrate incident light at low light levels. Dark current increases
with temperature. Without biasing, the dark current can
N+
be very low. The ideal photodiode would have no dark
Contact Metal
Cathode (-) current.
Figure 1. P-N Photodiode Cross-section

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 Application Note AN-LD17 Rev. A
Page 2
• Breakdown Voltage is the largest reverse voltage that
SiO2
can be applied to the photodiode before there is an AR Coating Anode (+)

exponential increase in leakage current or dark current. P+ Active Area

Photodiodes should be operated below this maximum I Region
applied reverse bias or damage to the photodiode may
occur. Breakdown voltage decreases with an increase N- Type Substrate
in temperature. N+
Contact Metal
Cathode (-)
Other important parameters include material, size of the
photodiode and active area, and cost. Careful consideration Figure 2. PIN Photodiode Cross-section
is needed when browsing for photodiodes for your research
or application. Photodiodes made from different materials PIN photodiodes also have high frequency response. The
(silicon, germanium, indium gallium arsenide phosphide, or major advantage of the PIN photodiode, compared to the
indium gallium arsenide) have varying levels of sensitivity P-N junction, is the high response speed from the increased
as well as differing speeds and dark current. Silicon, for depletion region.
example, provides sensitivity for wavelengths between ~400
and 1000 nm. However, it has the highest sensitivity at AVALANCHE PHOTODIODE
higher wavelengths (~900 nm). Germanium, on the other
hand, provides sensitivity for wavelengths between ~800 to Avalanche photodiodes (APD) use impact ionization
1600 nm (with the peak ~1400 nm). The material of the (avalanche effect) to create an internal gain in the material.
photodiode is critical when finding the right photodiode to APDs require high reverse bias operation (near reverse
incorporate into your laser diode system. breakdown voltage). Each photo-generated carrier creates
more pairs and so is multiplied by avalanche breakdown.
This creates internal gain within the photodiode, which in
TYPES OF PHOTODIODES turn increases the effective responsivity (larger current
generated per photon). Figure 3 shows the cross section
P-N JUNCTION of the APD.
This is the most basic photodiode. The physics of how the The typical spectral response range is around 300 - 1100 nm.
P-N junction photodiode operates was reviewed earlier. Current noise in an APD is higher than in a PIN photodiode,
The PIN and APD photodiode are variations from the P-N but the increased signal gain is much greater making signal-
junction. to-noise ratio greater in APDs. APDs generally have a
The depletion region contains few free charge carriers, and higher response speed and the ability to detect or measure
the width of the depletion region can be manipulated by light in lower levels.
adding voltage bias. Incident Light

Current passing through the photodiode can only flow in one SiO2
AR Coating Cathode(+)
direction based on the P and N doped materials. If reverse N
biased, current will not flow through a photodiode without P layer
Avalanche
incident light creating photocurrent. Region Depletion Layer

P+ Layer
PIN PHOTODIODE
The PIN photodiode is similar to the P-N Junction with one Contact Metal
Anode (-)
major difference. Instead of placing the P and N layers
together to create a depletion region, an intrinsic layer is Figure 3. APD Cross-section
placed between the two doped layers. This layer is shown in
Figure 2. This intrinsic layer is highly resistive and increases
the electric field strength in the photodiode. There are many
benefits to the added intrinsic layer because the depletion
region is greatly increased.
The capacitance of the junction is decreased, and so the
speed of the photodiode increased. The increased layer
also allows for a larger volume of photon to electron-hole
conversion and higher Quantum Efficiency.

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 Application Note AN-LD17 Rev. A
Page 3

MODES OF OPERATION “PHOTOCONDUCTIVE” MODE

REVERSE BIASED
“PHOTOVOLTAIC” MODE IP
When the photodiode is reverse
UNBIASED VP biased, an external voltage is
Photodiodes can be operated without applied to the P-N junction. The
any voltage bias. APDs are designed to negative terminal is connected to
be reversed biased, so this section will the positive P layer, and the positive terminal is connected to
be relevant to the P-N and PIN photodiodes. Without added the negative N layer. This causes the free electrons in the
voltage across the junction, dark current can be extremely N layer to pull toward the positive terminal, and the holes
low (near zero). This reduces the overall noise current of the in the P layer to pull toward the negative terminal. When
system. Thus unbiased P-N or PIN photodiodes are better the external voltage is applied to the photodiode, the free
suited for low light level applications compared to operation electrons start at the negative terminal and immediately fill
with reverse voltage bias. (The reverse biased APD will still the holes in the P layer with electrons. This creates negative
provide a higher sensitivity than P-N or PIN photodiodes ions in the atoms with extra electrons. The charged atoms
for low light applications.) Unbiased photodiodes can also then oppose the flow of free electrons to the P layer. Similarly,
work well for low frequency applications (up to 350 kHz). holes go about the same process to create positive ions but
Unbiased mode (where V = 0) can be seen in Figure 4 in in the opposite direction. When reverse biased, current will
between the forward bias mode (in green) and the reverse only flow through the photodiode with incident light creating
bias mode (in blue). The plot shows very little, if any, dark photocurrent.
current when unbiased, which can be seen by the lack of The reverse bias causes the potential across the depletion
current at the intersection of the I-V curve at V=0. region to increase and the width of the depletion region to
When the photodiode is illuminated, the electric field in the increase. This is ideal for creating a large area to absorb the
depletion region increases. This produces the photocurrent maximum amount of photons.
which increases with increasing photon flux. This is most The response time is reduced by the reverse bias by
commonly seen in solar cells where the generated voltage is increasing the size of the depletion layer. This increased
measured between the two terminals. width reduces the junction capacity and increases the drift
Compared to biased mode, photovoltaic mode has less velocity of the carriers in the photodiode. The transit time of
variation of photocurrent responsivity with temperature. the carriers is reduced, improving the response time.
The major downfall with unbiased photodiodes is the slow Unfortunately, increasing the bias current increases the dark
response speed. Without bias to the system, the capacitance current as well. This noise can be a problem for very sensitive
of the photodiode is at a maximum, leading to a slower systems using P-N or PIN photodiodes. This hinders the
speed. performance in low light situations. If using APDs, the signal
to noise ratio will be large regardless because of the gain
I of the photodiode. Because a photon is ideally absorbed in
the depletion region, the P layer can be constructed to be
Breakdown Reverse Bias Forward Bias
Voltage Photoconductive Mode Photovoltaic Mode extremely thin. This can be balanced with the reverse bias
to create an optimal photodiode with a faster response time
while maintaining as low as noise as possible.
I0 Another benefit to reverse biased operation is the linear
V
output (straight line in blue section of Figure 4) of the
P0 photodiode with respect to the illumination. This simply
IP
means that the voltage and current change linearly (directly
P1 proportional) with increasing optical power. The non-linearity
of the forward bias section (in green) can also be seen.
P2

Figure 4 shows the reverse bias section (in blue) with the
breakdown voltage next to it (in red). Photodiodes should
Figure 4. I-V Curve of Photodiodes. I0 is Dark Current. IP is not be operated beyond the breakdown voltage. This will
photocurrent. P shows current at different light levels (P0 is damage the photodiode.
no incident light).

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 Application Note AN-LD17 Rev. A
Page 4

INTEGRATION WITH LASER DIODE SUMMARY

A monitor photodiode is often integrated into a laser diode When deciding to reverse bias your photodiode, or not, it
package by the laser diode manufacturer. It produces a all comes down to balancing speed and noise and deciding
current partially proportional to the output laser diode optical what is most important. If your application depends on
power. If photodiode current is used as feedback, a control extremely low noise and low dark current, you should
system will try to keep the photodiode current (and therefore choose to not bias your photodiode. If speed is your main
the laser diode optical power) constant. The output of the concern, you should choose to reverse bias your photodiode
adjustable current source will vary to keep the optical power as the response time is improved. In other words, if your
level the same (this is called Constant Power (CP) Mode). application is precision based, photovoltaic mode will better
Photodiode current and laser diode output power are related fit your needs. If your application is speed (high) based,
by a transfer function given in the laser diode datasheet. photoconductive mode or reversed biased mode will better
Not only can photodiodes monitor the DC or CW output of a fit this area.
laser by providing current back to the laser system, they can Reverse biasing the photodiode will be much more
also test a laser pulse shape and record peak powers of a responsive than unbiased mode. If operating in photovoltaic
laser pulse. mode, the response may need to be amplified.
The information in datasheets for photodiodes include The type of photodiode may also affect your decision of
the four major components discussed earlier, the type bias. Certain types of photodiodes can only be reversed
of photodiode, peak sensitivity wavelengths, and most biased, and others may have amplification of the response
importantly size and cost. internal to the system. APDs will be effective in low light
Photodiodes that are already incorporated into the laser situations where sensitivity is critical but are expensive, P-N
diode system can be limited in options and information. photodiodes are the most basic design and not widely used,
Laser datasheets usually give the maximum reverse voltage and PIN photodiodes are the most common photodiode and
and sometimes the sensitivity of the photodiode. the cheapest while having very low noise. As discussed
earlier, the materials, size, and cost also affect the type of
If the specifications of the photodiode are extremely photodiode needed for the application. Table 1 shows a
important to your laser design, custom builds or assemblies simplified chart comparing three different photodiodes.
may be required to meet your needs.

P-N PIN APD

PHOTO- Best Good Poor
VOLTAIC
USEFUL SITES
REVERSE Good Best Good
BIASED Wikipedia
LOW LIGHT Poor Good Best https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Photodiode
COST Best Good Poor
OSI Optoelectronics
LOW NOISE Good Best Poor
http://www.osioptoelectronics.com/application-notes/
Table 1. Comparison Chart an-photodiode-parameters-characteristics.pdf

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Semiconductors/diodes_27.php

REVISION HISTORY
KEYWORDS Document Number: AN-LD17
Photodiode, reverse biased, unbiased, response speed,
REVISION DATE NOTES
responsivity, dark current, breakdown voltage, photovoltaic,
photoconductive, PN junction, PIN photodiode, Avalanche A January 2020 Initial Release
photodiode, laser

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