InGaAs/InAlAs Avalanche Photodiode With Low Dark Current for High-Speed Operation

Author

Shiyu Xie ; Shiyong Zhang ; Chee Hing Tan

Author_Institution

Dept. of Electron. & Electr. Eng., Univ. of Sheffield, Sheffield, UK

Volume

27

Issue

16

fYear

2015

fDate

Aug.15, 15 2015

Firstpage

1745

Lastpage

1748

Abstract

Waveguide InGaAs/InAlAs avalanche photodiodes (APDs) with high bandwidths (>40 GHz) and low dark current (<;50 nA at 90% of breakdown voltage) were demonstrated. The excess noise is low, corresponding to k ~ 0.2 line in the local excess noise model. Using these values bit error rate (BER) was calculated to assess the potential of our APDs. Calculated sensitivities of -21.5 dBm at 25 Gb/s and -14.2 dBm at 40 Gb/s are predicted for a BER of 10^-10. Analysis showed that with lower amplifier noise, the low dark current and low excess noise from our APDs are necessary to optimize the sensitivity.

Keywords

III-V semiconductors; aluminium compounds; avalanche photodiodes; error statistics; gallium arsenide; indium compounds; integrated optoelectronics; noise; optical receivers; optical waveguides; optimisation; APD; BER; InGaAs-InAlAs; amplifier noise; bit error rate; bit rate 25 Gbit/s; breakdown voltage; high-speed operation; local excess noise model; low dark current; sensitivity optimization; waveguide avalanche photodiode; Bandwidth; Dark current; Indium gallium arsenide; Noise; Optical waveguides; Sensitivity; Avalanche photodiodes bandwidth; bit-error-rate; receiver sensitivity at 25 Gb/s;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Photonics Technology Letters, IEEE

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

1041-1135

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/LPT.2015.2439153

Filename

7115051