Role of gradual gate doping engineering in improving phototransistor performance for ultra-low power applications

In this paper, an optimized ultra-low power phototransistor design based on gradual gate doping engineering is proposed. Using an analytical investigation and numerical simulation, an overall performance comparison of the proposed phototransistor design and conventional structure has been studied, in order to show the improved characteristics provided by the proposed design in terms of increased ratio and superior photoresponsivity capability. The results obtained from our analytical investigation are validated by comparison with the numerical simulations, thus establishing the accuracy of our analytical investigation. Moreover, the developed analytical models are used to optimize the proposed design using a genetic algorithm (GA) based-computation. The advantages offered by the proposed design suggest the possibility to overcome the most challenging problem with the power requirements of the optical interconnect: power consumption in the light emitter and in the receiver. In this context, the proposed phototransistor owing to the high responsivity requires less optical power from the light emitter to achieve an acceptable signal-to-noise ratio compared to the phototransistor with conventional design.