  Group III-V semiconductor materials are being considered as a Si replacement
for advanced logic devices for quite some time. Advances in III-V processing
technologies, such as interface and surface passivation, large area deep
submicron lithography with high-aspect ratio etching primarily driven by the
MOSFET development can also be used for other applications. In this paper we
will focus on photodetectors with the drift field parallel to the surface. We
compare the proposed concept to the state-of-the-art Si-based technology and
discuss requirements which need to be satisfied for such detectors to be used
in a single photon counting mode in blue and ultraviolet spectral region with
about 10 ps photon timing resolution essential for numerous applications
ranging from high-energy physics to medical imaging.
