A High-Speed and High-Sensitivity Photon-Counting Communication System Based on Multichannel SPAD Detection

• Published in: IEEE photonics journal Vol. 13; no. 2; pp. 1 - 10
• Main Authors: Wen, Guanhua, Huang, Jun, Zhang, Liang, Li, Changkun, Wen, Tiancheng, Wang, Jianyu
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Piscataway IEEE 01.04.2021; The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE)
• Subjects: Attenuation; Avalanche diodes; Bit error rate; Communications systems; Detectors; High speed; Monte Carlo simulation; multichannel detection; Optical attenuators; Optical communication; Optical fiber communication; Optical noise; Photon avalanches; Photon-counting communication; Photonics; Photons; Pulse position modulation; Sensitivity; serially-concatenated pulse position modulation; Single-photon avalanche diodes; single-photon counting module
• ISSN: 1943-0655; 1943-0655; 1943-0647
• DOI: 10.1109/JPHOT.2021.3058002

In order to achieve high-speed, high-sensitivity optical communication over long distances and high attenuation channels, we propose a photon-counting communication system based on the detection of multichannel single-photon avalanche diodes (SPADs). First, the ideal pulse position modulation (PPM) bit error rate (BER) expression for a multichannel detection system is derived, and then the effect of the detector's dead time is taken into account. The BER of the multichannel detection system was analyzed by means of a Monte Carlo simulation, after which we set up a four-channel receiving experimental verification system with a 1 × 4 fiber splitter and four single-photon counting modules (SPCMs). The simulation and experimental results demonstrated that the BER of the multichannel detection system could be greatly reduced and the communication speed substantially improved. Finally, a reliable photon-counting communication system with a rate of 50 Mbps and sensitivity of 4 photons/bit was developed using serially-concatenated pulse position modulation (SCPPM) technology.