Geiger-mode avalanche photodiodes for photon-counting communications

Author

Verghese, S. ; Cohen, D.M. ; Dauler, E.A. ; Donnelly, J.P. ; Duerr, E.K. ; Groves, S.H. ; Hopman, P.L. ; Jensen, K.E. ; Liau, Z. -L ; Mahoney, L.J. ; McIntosh, K.A. ; Oakley, D.C. ; Smith, G.M.

Author_Institution

Lincoln Lab., MIT, Lexington, MA, USA

fYear

2005

fDate

25-27 July 2005

Firstpage

15

Lastpage

16

Abstract

Arrays of photon-counting avalanche photodiodes enable laser-communications receivers with unprecedented sensitivity at 1.06-μm wavelength. Arrays with 64 elements were fabricated in the InGaAsP/InP materials system and were bump-bonded to a custom CMOS integrated circuit. The integrated circuit uses a novel nonblocking architecture to continuously report both time-of-arrival for incoming photons as well as their spatial location on the array. Near room temperature, the best detectors have: 45% photon detection efficiency, 65-kHz dark count rate, and a 1.6-μs reset time to avoid after-pulsing.

Keywords

CMOS integrated circuits; III-V semiconductors; avalanche photodiodes; gallium arsenide; indium compounds; optical fibre communication; optical receivers; photon counting; space communication links; 1.06 mum; 1.6 mus; 65 kHz; CMOS integrated circuit; Geiger-mode avalanche photodiodes; InGaAsP-InP; bump-bonded; laser-communications receivers; photon-counting avalanche photodiodes; photon-counting communications; time-of-arrival; Avalanche photodiodes; Electric breakdown; Fiber lasers; Indium phosphide; Laser radar; Mars; Optical arrays; Optical receivers; Packaging; Photonic integrated circuits;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

LEOS Summer Topical Meetings, 2005 Digest of the

ISSN

1099-4742

Print_ISBN

0-7803-8981-6

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/LEOSST.2005.1527970

Filename

1527970