A monolithically integrated receiver consisting of a low-capacitance PIN photodiode and a photo-charge integrating amplifier in 0.18- μ m CMOS is introduced launching a new class of ultra-sensitive optical receivers. The integrated PIN photodiode has a junction capacitance of 1.5 fF at a light-sensitive diameter of 30 μ m, a responsivity of 0.39 A/W at 635 nm, and rise/fall times of 0.73/0.92 ns at a reverse bias of 20 V. The common-source amplifier integrates the photo-charges on the smallest possible integration capacitor, which is a gate-drain overlap capacitance. The data bits are reconstructed by double sampling. In such a way, the sensitivity of SPAD receivers is achieved, however without using any impact ionization. At 50 Mb/s, a sensitivity of −56.4 dBm for a bit error ratio (BER) of 2 × 10 −3 is obtained using a wavelength of 635 nm.
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Research facilities:
Analytical Instrumentation Center
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Project title:
Höchst empfindliche PIN- und Lawinenfotodioden Empfänger: P 34649-N (FWF Fonds zur Förderung der wissenschaftlichen Forschung (FWF))
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Additional information:
Impact Statement:
The proposed PIN-photodiode receiver offers a performance being competitive to receivers using single-photon avalanche diodes. The advantages of much less circuit effort and easier handling offer new perspectives for optical receivers. The used photo-charge integration principle may also be interesting for application in many advanced sensor applications.
