Photoparametric amplifier

Author

Penfield, P., Jr. ; Sawyer, D.E.

Author_Institution

Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA

Volume

53

Issue

4

fYear

1965

fDate

4/1/1965 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

340

Lastpage

347

Abstract

This paper compares the spot signal-to-noise ratio of a semiconductor microwave p-n junction photodiode operated as, 1) a simple reverse-biased photodiode, and 2) a photodiode with integral parametric amplification. The gain and noise properties of the photoparametric diode are expressed in terms of the gain and noise of a hypothetical amplifier coupled to the simple (nonparametric) photodiode. For the simple photodiode, the signal-to-noise ratio is an increasing function of the Q of the diode at the signal frequency. For a suitably designed high-Q photodiode, operation as a nondegenerate photoparametric diode, with properly chosen idler and pump frequencies, can yield noise figures for the equivalent hypothetical amplifier as low as a few tenths of a decibel. One advantage of operation as a photoparametric amplifier is that a circulator is not needed. Another is that it is not necessary to pump the diode hard to get gain. There are also certain advantages in broadbanding.

Keywords

Broadband amplifiers; Frequency; Low-noise amplifiers; Noise figure; Operational amplifiers; P-n junctions; Photodiodes; Semiconductor device noise; Semiconductor diodes; Signal to noise ratio;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Proceedings of the IEEE

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0018-9219

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/PROC.1965.3746

Filename

1445676