Study on surface leakage current at sidewall in InP-based avalanche photodiodes with mesa structure

A multi-mesa InGaAs/InP avalanche photodiode (APD) with the advantage of completely restricted electric field is proposed. The surface defects, which are reasons for sidewall leakage current generation in mesa-structure APD, theoretically studied, and then a model developed. Silvaco Atlas device simulation tool used to analyze mechanism current, effects different mesa structures on APD compared. results show that about zero not affected by terrace size, can be contributed very weak at sidewall.