OWC Using a Fully Integrated Optical Receiver With Large-Diameter APD

• Published in: IEEE photonics technology letters Vol. 27; no. 5; pp. 482 - 485
• Main Authors: Brandl, Paul, Enne, Reinhard, Jukic, Tomislav, Zimmermann, Horst
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: IEEE 01.03.2015
• Subjects: Avalanche photodiode; Bit error rate; CMOS integrated circuits; integrated optoelectronics; Measurement by laser beam; Noise; Optical fibers; Optical receivers; optical wireless communication; Optoelectronic devices; integrated optoelectronics; CMOS integrated circuits; Avalanche photodiode; optical wireless communication; optical receivers
• ISSN: 1041-1135; 1941-0174
• DOI: 10.1109/LPT.2014.2382333

This letter presents a fully monolithically integrated receiver with a large-diameter avalanche photodiode (APD). Using a standard high-voltage 0.35-μm CMOS technology, the APD is implemented with separated absorption and multiplication regions optimizing the ionization ratio between holes and electrons. This optimized ionization ratio leads to a low excess noise factor of the APD, which considerably improves the receiver's sensitivity to -31.8 dBm at 1 Gbit/s (bit error rate <;10 -9 ). A 1-Gbit/s wireless optical communication link with a distance of 3.3 m is demonstrated. Due to the highly sensitive receiver, it is possible to omit any kind of input optics, resulting in a wide receiving angle of 68° for a bit error rate of <;10 -9 .