Patent ID: 7736927

Claim:
A method of making a component, the method comprising: in a photodetector portion of a semiconductor body, forming three layers of material in the semiconductor body, said three layers of material comprising an I layer (intrinsic region) sandwiched between a top layer and a bottom layer, said top layer being either an n-region or a p-region and said bottom layer comprising the other one of said n-region or p-region; photolithographically forming a hard mask grating on a surface of the top layer of the three layers in the photodetector portion of the semiconductor body said hard mask grating formed subsequent to forming said three layers of material; forming a trench by etching through the top layer and into the I layer in the photodetector portion of the semiconductor body using the hard mask grating as a mask; and forming an anode/cathode region of a photodetector by implanting only into a sidewall of the trench with a dopant, the anode/cathode region being separated from the bottom layer by the I layer, wherein the anode/cathode region, the I layer, and the bottom layer form the photodetector.