Patent ID: 8178863

Claim:
A photodiode array having a lateral collection architecture, comprising: a substrate; a first electrically conducting layer deposited on the substrate, the first electrically conducting layer having a single carrier type and being a strained layer superlattice structure; a second electrically conducting layer deposited on the first electrically conducting layer and forming a top surface of the planar photodiode array, the second electrically conducting layer having the same carrier type as the first electrically conducting layer; a plurality of cavities formed through the second electrically conducting layer and into the first electrically conducting layer; a plurality of regions of electrically conducting material arranged throughout a surface of the plurality of cavities and created by introducing a dopant into the surface and adjacent material region of the plurality of cavities, the plurality of regions having a single carrier type of a type opposite the first electrically conducting layer, each region penetrating the first and second electrically conducting layers and isolated from all other regions within the first and second electrically conducting layers and having a perimeter of a junction terminate in the second electrically conducting layer; a plurality of first contacts, each first contact electrically coupled to one of the regions at the top surface of the planar photodiode; and a common contact electrically coupled to the first or second electrically conducting layer in a region outside the plurality of regions.