Eljire Bagas Lewi 1101178513

Photodetector for Optical Communication System

Eljire Bagas Lewi1, Ir. Akhmad Hambali, M. T.2
Jurusan Teknik Telekomunikasi Telkom University, Bandung
Jl. Telekomunikasi No. 1, Bandung
1
eljirebagas@gmail.com
2
ahambali@telkomuniversity.ac.id

Abstract-At the transmitting end of the
optical fiber communication system, the light
source is modulated with a low-frequency
baseband electrical signal, and then the
modulated light signal is transmitted via the
optical fiber. Due to factors such as
attenuation and dispersion of optical fibers,
when a dimmed signal is transmitted to the
receiving end, it becomes weak and has
waveform distortion. The role of the optical
receiver is to detect the weak light signal first,
then convert it into an electrical signal, and
then restore to the original baseband signal
through amplification, shaping, regeneration,
and decoding. Therefore, the core component
of the optical receiver is a photodetector[3].
I. INTRODUCTION
The abrupt increase of internet traffic has
put tremendous pressure on communication
capabilities. Three effective solutions,
improving the transmission rate of a single
channel, increasing the number of channels,
and adopting an advanced modulation format
technique, are usually employed to increase
communication capacities. In the future
optical fiber communication system in which
the transmission rate continues to increase,
whether adopting optical time division
multiplexing, orthogonal frequency division
multiplexing or wavelength division
multiplexing (OTDM, OFDM or WDM)
technology, high-speed photodetectors (PDs)
are crucial devices for achieving the
photoelectric conversion of the signal, and it
directly determines the performance of the
communication system. A high-speed optical
signal demodulation system requires
specially designed PDs and detection
systems, which need to meet the following
factors: (1) broad bandwidth to accommodate
the instantaneous variation of the incoming
signal, (2) large response to the incident
optical signal, (3) minimum of noise added
by the detection systems.
speed optical signal demodulation system r
equires specially designed PDs and detectio
n systems,
which need to meet the following factors:(1)
broad bandwidth to accommodate the instan
taneous variation of the incoming signal, (2
)
large response to the incident optical sig
nal,(3) minimum of noise added by the detec
tion systems.
In an optical communication link, there
are two main ways to carry out light
detection, named by direct detection and
coherent detection. Direct detection means
that the signal light is directly incident on the
photosensitive surface of the PD, which only
responds to the intensity of the incident light
radiation, so direct detection is widely used
due to its simple and practical advantages.
Coherent detection refers to the process that
the signal light and the intrinsic light, which
satisfying the phase matching condition are
mixed in the PD, and then the difference
frequency signal is output. Photoelectric
coherent detection has many advantages,
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such as strong detection capability, high
signal to noise ratio, good filterability and
high stability and reliability[1, 2].
II. THEORY
In the entire optical fiber communication
system, the photoelectric detection device
mainly has two purposes: one is for terminal
reception of the communication system, and
the upper part of the figure is the schematic
diagram of terminal receiving of the digital
optical fiber communication system; the
second is photoelectric conversion for the
relay station. After the signal processing
continues to transmit, the lower part of the
figure below depicts the relay station’s
photoelectric conversion process[3].
Figure 1. working process diagram of
optical communication system[3]
2.1. Photoelectric Detection Principle
The photodetector is an optoelectronic
device made by utilizing the photoelectric
effect of a semiconductor. It converts the
change of the optical signal into the change
of the photocurrent, and reflects the change
rule of the information. According to
different conversion parameters, the
semiconductor photodetector has two basic
types: photoconductive type and photodiode
type. The conductance of the
photoconductive type detector changes with
the change of luminous flux. The photodiode
is always operated in the reverse bias state. It
belongs to the inner photoelectric effect
device, and the incident photon does not
directly bombard photoelectrons, but merely
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raises the internal electrons from the lower
energy level to the higher energy level. The
differential resistance of the photodetector
does not change with the luminous flux, and
the generated photocurrent is proportional to
the luminous flux. Both types of
semiconductor photodetection devices have
very fast response speeds, but have their own
characteristics and different uses. In optical
fiber communication systems, the most
widely used photodetector is a photodiode
because of the small size and long life of such
detectors[3].
2.2. Photodetector Operating Characteristic
Parameters
The main function of the photodetector
is to convert the optical power signal
transmitted from the optical fiber into a
current signal, which carries the information
of the source. Photoelectric detector basic
parameters including the following 6 main
features[3]:
 Photocurrent
When the incident optical power of
the photodetector changes, the
photocurrent also changes linearly,
thereby converting the optical signal into
an electrical signal.
 Quantum efficiency
Quantum efficiency, ie, photoelectric
conversion efficiency, represents the
degree to which the total number of
photons received by the photodetector
can be converted into the total number of
electrons of the photogenerated current.
 Responsiveness
TheResponsiveness, also called
photoelectric conversion sensitivity, is
represented by r, which reflects how
much light power is converted into
photo-generated current.
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 Cutoff wavelength
Only when the incident photon
energy is greater than the bandgap of the
detection device material,
photogenerated carriers can be
generated, forming a photocurrent.
Therefore, for any photoelectric
detection device made of any material,
there is a minimum frequency or
maximum wavelength that can be
detected, ie, the upper cutoff
wavelength.
 Dark current
The dark current represents the
reverse current that occurs in the absence
of light. It affects the receiver’s signal-
to-noise ratio and is an important quality
parameter.
 Response time
The response time (speed) indicates
the ability of the photodetector to
respond to the optical signal.
2.3. Fiber Optic Communication System
Requirements for Photodetection
Devices.
The role of the photoelectric detection
device is to use the photoelectric effect to
convert the optical signal into an electrical
signal. The main requirements for
photodetection devices are: high sensitivity at
the operating wavelength in order to improve
the photoelectric conversion efficiency; fast
response, good linearity, frequency
bandwidth, and the speed of photoelectric
conversion is higher than the operating speed
of the system, reaching hundreds of Mbit/s
From s to thousands of Gbit/s, the bit rate of
the communication system can be increased;
the additional noise caused by the detection
process is small, various measures are taken
to reduce the internal noise of the system, and
the signal to noise ratio is improved; the cost
is low, the reliability is high, and the volume
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is small Small, long life, the photo-sensitive
surface of the detector is matched with the
core diameter of the optical fiber to improve
the coupling efficiency; the operating voltage
is as low as possible and easy to use. In
optical fiber communication systems, the
photodetector devices that meet the above
requirements are the most commonly used
PIN photodiodes and avalanche photodiodes
(APD)[3].
2.4. Photoelectric detection device
There are many materials that can be
used to make photodiode detectors, such as
Si, Ge, GaAs, InGaAs, GaAsP, InGaAsP, and
the like. According to the photodiode
detection PN junction, it can be divided into
PN junction type, PIN junction type,
Schottky barrier junction type, heterojunction
and avalanche photodiode detectors.
According to the wavelength response to
light to distinguish, photodiode detector can
be divided into infrared type, ultraviolet type,
blue silicon type. Among them, the
photodiode made of Si material, its typical
peak response wavelength of 0.94 μm, its
series is also more; PIN photodiode and
avalanche photodiode APD’s response time
is short, so suitable for high-speed
transmission applications; Ge The
photodiode of the material is also one of the
widely used optoelectronic devices. Since its
band gap is smaller than Si, it has higher
sensitivity in the long wavelength band, but
since the Ge material has a relatively large
current, the noise is also high. InGaAs
photodiodes are one to two orders of
magnitude lower, so photodiodes of InGaAs
compound materials are widely used. In order
to meet the requirements of optoelectronic
integrated circuits, integrated optical
photodetectors can be fabricated using
various waveguide effects[3].
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III. PACKAGING FOR
PHOTODETECTORS
As we know, the bandwidth of the PD
chip has exceeded 100 GHz; at such high
operating frequency, the efficient design of
packages and interconnects is quite
challenging in terms of the loss due to the
resonances in transmission line structures,
launch transitions, impedance mismatch as
well as electrical loss of electrodes.
Moreover, to achieve the target of high
capacity, multi-channel modules is a nice
choice for the WDM system. Currently,
hybrid integration packaging has been
adopted for high-speed modules instead of
the traditional packaging design, and it is a
trend to integrate many functional
components on one single substrate. In this
section, some technologies of the packaging
are introduced in the following[4].
3.1. Transmission Line Design
Single-ended PDs usually use coaxial output
connectors whose cavity diameters are 1.8,
2.4, or 2.92 mm, depending on their speed.
The interface of the connector pin and the
internal transmission line are very crucial at
such high speeds, because misalignment
between them can cause degradation in the
electrical return loss. In addition, it is
necessary to cautiously control the shape and
quantity of the solder used in the connection.
The design of transmission lines has a
significant impact on module performance.
Generally, coplanar waveguides have better
signal shielding and lower dispersion than
microstrip lines, but a slightly higher loss[4].
Figure 2. Structure of a PD module using a
catadioptric system[5]
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3.2. Effect of connecting ways on module
performance
Flip-chip, tape-bonding, and wire-
bonding are widely adopted for
interconnecting the chips based on different
substrates whose transmission performances
up to 120 GHz. Many works have been
conducted into the behavior of wire-bonding
and flip-chip. Compared with wire-bonding
technology, flip-chip technology generally
has a superior performance in terms of small
solder bumps and less inductive parasitics.
However, the length of bonding wires can be
fabricated to be fairly short with the
development of wire-bonding technology. So
wire-bonding is considered as another
attractive connecting method in highspeed
applications due to its advantages such as low
cost, robustness, high thermal tolerance, and
convenient fabrication process.
The length of the wire bond used in the
PD packaging between different components
should be precisely controlled respectively.
The inductance introduced by wire bonding
causes peaking gain, which can be used to
extend the bandwidth of the PD module,
while the wire bond connecting the PD and
TIA should be kept as short as possible. A
method to reduce the inductance between the
PD and TIA is making the TIA mounted very
close to the PD chip and coplanar with it.
What is more, the AC current through the PD
to the ground must meet minimal inductance,
because it causes a ground like an open
circuit, which gives rise to a sharp decrease
in gain, so the bonding wire connecting to the
ground should also be short as possible. It
worth noting that introducing additional
capacitance that can increase module noise
and reduce bandwidth should be avoided.
3.3. Optical Coupling
Highly efficient optical coupling is one
of the most challenging aspects in the
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packaging process. This is primarily because
the active areas of the high-speed PD are
small which makes optical coupling
extremely sensitive to any shifts in the optical
fiber. Many types of compact ROSAs that
were integrated with surface-illuminated PDs
adopting various optical systems have been
demonstrated. As shown in Figure 2, a PD
module using a catadioptric system was
demonstrated by the Kiyohide Sakai group in
2009; this optical system consists of a BK7
ball lens and a plastic-molded offset
parabolic mirror[59]. In 2013, two different
forms of demultiplexer
Figure 3. Schematic configuration of AWG[6]
Figure 4. Schematic of the optical DMUX block[7]
(DMUX) used for optical coupling for ROSA
are presented by the NTT Corporation and
Chungnam National University, respectively.
As shown in Figure 3, a waveguide grating
(AWG) DMUX is used in array module
packaging, another optical DMUX block
which is composed of local area
networkwavelength division multiplexing
(LAN-WDM) thin-film filters and an
optically transparent quartz block is adopted
shown in Figure 4. In 2017, Isaac et al.
presented a coupling approach, which uses
vertical grating couplers to illuminate the III–
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V modified (UTC-PD) in a silicon PIC, as
shown in Figure 5[8].
Figure 5. A coupling approach using vertical
grating[8]
IV. APPLICATION AND PROSPECT
PDs must meet various performances in
terms of bandwidth, output power,
sensitivity, power consumption and dynamic
range for different applications such as
optical communication systems, radio over
fiber systems and millimeter terahertz signal
generation systems. For optical
communication systems, the capacity is
constantly pursued by researchers, which is
up to 100 GbE or even 400 GbE. Therefore,
highspeed detectors and detector array
receiver modules are still research hotspots
for optical communication systems. The
sensitivity is a significant parameter for free-
space optical (FSO) communication systems,
because the optical carrier after a long
distance of transmission will become
divergent and unstable, which makes it
difficult for the detector to capture the optical
signal. To overcome this problem, a big area
of the photo-surface is strictly demanded,
whereas this is often accompanied by a
decrease in the speed of response. Therefore,
a PD with new structure needs to be
developed urgently. PD with high linearity
and high power are vital for analog photonic
links and they have been used in many
various microwave photonic applications
such as phased array radars, ROF systems,
etc. As a high frequency mixing component,
a PD which is able to deliver a very high
photocurrent level will bring numerous
advantages such as improving link gain,
reducing the noise figure, and making the
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linearity of the PD better. The saturation
current characteristic is a significant factor
that determines the spurious-free dynamic
range (SFDR) and signal to noise ratio (SNR)
of the system. In particular, the non-linearity
of the PD determines the upper bound of the
spurious-free dynamic range of the system
where a linear modulator has been used. In
addition, for millimeter terahertz signal
generation systems, a high-speed PD with big
saturation currents can broaden the frequency
range of the generated signal and the intensity
of the signal produced by the PD is boosted
by increasing the incident optical power. As
a consequence, it is conducive to transmit
signals and reduce the cost of the system.
Therefore, the PD with high saturation
currents got the enthusiasm of the
researchers[4].
[6] DoiY, Oguma M, Ito M, et al. Compact
ROSA for 100-Gb/s (4 × 25 Gb/s)
ethernet with a PLC-based AWG
demultiplexer. National Fiber Optic
Engineers Conference, 2013: NW1J.5
[7] Lee J K, Kang S K, Huh J Y, et al. Highly
alignment tolerant 4 × 25 Gb/s ROSA
module for 100G ethernet optical
transceiver. 39th European Conference
and Exhibition on Optical
Communication, 2013: 1
[8] Isaac B, Song B, Xia X, et al. Hybrid
integration of UTC-PDs on silicon
photonics. CLEO: Science and
Innovations, 2017: SM4O.1

V. REFERENCES

[1] Kaneda N, Pfau T, Zhang H, et al. Field

demonstration of 100-Gb/s real-time
coherent optical OFDM detection. The
European Conference on Optical
Communication, 2014: 1
[2] Zhou X, Zhong K, Huo J, et al. 112-
Gbit/s PDM-PAM4 transmission over
80-km SMF using digital coherent
detection without optical amplifier.
International Symposium on
Communication Systems, Networks and
Digital Signal Processing, 2016: 1
[3] [Online] :
https://www.fiberoptictel.com/two-
major-uses-of-photodetectors-in-
optical-communication-systems/
[4] Zhao, Zeping. High-Speed
Photodeteectors in Optical
Communication System. 2017. Chinese
Academy Of Sciences, Beijing.
[5] Caillaud C, Chanclou P, Blache F, et al.
High sensitivity 40 Gbit/s preamplified
SOA-PIN/TIA receiver module for high
speed PON. European Conference on
Optical Communication, 2014: 1
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