Effect of dead space on gain and noise of double-carrier-multiplication avalanche photodiodes

Author

Hayat, Majeed M. ; Saleh, Bahaa E A ; Teich, Malvin C.

Author_Institution

Dept. of Electr. & Comput. Eng., Wisconsin Univ., Madison, WI, USA

Volume

39

Issue

3

fYear

1992

fDate

3/1/1992 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

546

Lastpage

552

Abstract

The effect of dead space on the statistics of the gain in a double-carrier-multiplication avalanche photodiode (APD) is determined using a recurrence method. The dead space is the minimum distance that a newly generated carrier must travel in order to acquire sufficient energy to become capable of causing an impact ionization. Recurrence equations are derived for the first moment, the second moment, and the probability distribution function of two random variables that are related, in a deterministic way, to the random gain of the APD. These equations are solved numerically to produce the mean gain and the excess noise factor. The presence of dead space reduces both the mean gain and the excess noise factor of the device. This may have a beneficial effect on the performance of the detector when used in optical receivers with photon noise and circuit noise

Keywords

avalanche photodiodes; electron device noise; semiconductor device models; APD; avalanche photodiodes; circuit noise; dead space; double-carrier-multiplication; excess noise factor; gain; impact ionization; mean gain; noise; optical receivers; photon noise; random gain; recurrence method; Avalanche photodiodes; Circuit noise; Difference equations; Impact ionization; Noise reduction; Optical noise; Probability distribution; Random variables; Space exploration; Statistics;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Electron Devices, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0018-9383

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/16.123476

Filename

123476