Fully integrated optical receiver using single-photonavalanche diodes in high-voltage CMOS

Abstract

A monolithic optical receiver containing four single-photon avalanche diodes(SPADs) fabricated in 0.35-μm high-voltage (HV) CMOS is introduced and compared with two 4-SPAD receivers realized in pin-photodiode CMOS belonging to the same process family. This HV-CMOS SPAD receiver achieves sensitivities of −55.1 dBm at 50 Mbit∕s and −52.0 dBm at 100 Mbit∕s, both with digital processing, a bit error rate (BER) of 2 × 10−3, and return-to-zero coding using a wavelength of 642 nm. Also at 143 Mbit∕s, this BER is achievable. This receiver