Silicon-Compatible Photodetectors: Trends to Monolithically Integrate Photosensors with Chip Technology

Encouraged by the increasing requirements of intelligent equipment, silicon integrated circuit–compatible photodetectors that support single-chip photonic–electronic systems have gained considerable progresses. Advanced materials have resulted in enhanced device performance based on traditional photovoltaic effect and photoconductive effect, and novel device designs have catalyzed new working mechanisms combing rapid photoresponse and high responsivity gain. Surprising applications are developed using monolithic photonic–electronic platforms, and the developing integration strategies keep pace with the developing complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor techniques as well as nonsilicon substrates. Here, the recent developments in silicon-compatible photodetectors, both in device advances and their integration routes, are reviewed. Meanwhile, the progresses, challenges, and possible future directions in this field are discussed and concluded.