High speed photodetectors are most sophisticated optoelectronic devices, because it has high photo sensitivity, and allow a large wavelength range of detection as a receiver from 750 nm to 1.3-1.55 μm in the optical communication system. Since the last decade, the electrical and optical characteristics of photodetectors have been investigated to improve their performance and price. We have worked on two different type of infrared photodetectors based on nanowire. One photodetector was p-n photodiode, and the other one was p-i-n structure. We investigated the detector performance at 77K-300K temperature corresponding with wavelength in darkness and under illumination as regarding breakdown voltage, sensitivity, and quantum efficiency. We have also compared the differences between the two photodetectors performance characteristics. © 2011 IEEE.