Opto-electronic integrated circuit

Abstract

In an opto-electronic integrated circuit of the present invention, in a first surface region of a semiconductor substrate, a pin-type photodiode is constituted on the basis of a photodiode layer formed on a first transistor layer. In a second surface region of the semiconductor substrate, a heterojunction bipolar transistor is constituted on the basis of only a second transistor layer separated form the first transistor layer. Since a plurality of heterojunction bipolar transistors are normally integrated for one pin-type photodiode, the thickness of the heterojunction bipolar transistors larger in number than the pin-type photodiode is set regardless of the thickness of the pin-type photodiode. The thickness of a high-resistance layer in the pin-type photodiode is set with an increased degree of freedom. When the first surface region of the semiconductor substrate is the inner region of a recessed step portion, and the second surface region of the semiconductor substrate is the outer region of the recessed step portion, a difference in thickness between the heterojunction bipolar transistor and the pin-type photodiode is absorbed by the depth of the recessed step portion. For this reason, the pin-type photodiode and the heterojunction bipolar transistor are formed to have almost the same surface level.