SPICE Modeling in Verilog-A for Photo-response in UTC-photodiodes targeting Beyond-5G Circuit Design

• Published in: IEEE transactions on computer-aided design of integrated circuits and systems Vol. 42; no. 9; p. 1
• Main Authors: Mukherjee, C., Guendouz, D., Deng, M., Bertin, H., Bobin, A., Vaissiere, N., Caillaud, C., Arabhavi, A. M., Chaudhary, R., Ostinelli, O., Bolognesi, C., Mounaix, P., Maneux, C.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York IEEE 01-09-2023; The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE)
• Subjects: Accuracy; Analytical models; Beyond-5G circuit design; Circuit design; Computational modeling; Engineering Sciences; Equivalent circuits; Frequency ranges; III-V semiconductor materials; Indium phosphide; Integrated circuit modeling; Mathematical models; Modelling; Photoconductivity; Photodiode compact model; Photodiodes; Photoelectric effect; Photoelectric emission; SPICE; UTC photodiode; Verilog-A; Beyond-5G circuit design; SPICE; UTC photodiode; Photodiode compact model; Beyond-5G circuit design Photodiode compact model UTC photodiode SPICE Verilog-A; Verilog-A
• ISSN: 0278-0070; 1937-4151
• DOI: 10.1109/TCAD.2023.3236277

This paper reports the first accurate and physicsbased Verilog-A implementation of the fully analytic form of photocurrent in SPICE compact models for uni-traveling carrier (UTC) photodiodes (PD). To overcome the limitations of single pole network implementations for modeling frequency dependence of the photo-response, especially at frequencies beyond 100 GHz, we explored different solutions for the complete analytic equation of the dynamic photocurrent. A new implementation has been proposed which requires three additional nodes in the UTC-PD electrical equivalent circuit and offers the best trade-off between accuracy and computational efficiency. Model validation has been performed against on-wafer measurements from two UTC-PD technologies depicting very good accuracy over the entire frequency range.