Optical Receivers

-Photodetectors or detectors
- Optical Receivers
- Coherent detections

By Dejene Birile
Optics and Optical Communication
Haramaya University, Institute of Technology, IoT
Electrical and Computer Engineering Dept
System Block Diagram
 Introduction to Photodetectors
• Optical receivers convert optical signal (light) to electrical signal
(current/voltage). Hence referred ‘O/E Converter’
• Photodetector is the fundamental element of optical receiver, followed by
amplifiers and signal conditioning circuitry.
• Photodetector converts the optical energy into an electrical current that is then
processed by electronics to recover the information.
 Electron-hole photogeneration
• Most modern photodetectors operate on the basis of the internal photoelectric
effect – the photoexcited electrons and holes remain within the material,
increasing the electrical conductivity of the material
• Electron-hole photogeneration in a semiconductor

•A photodiode material should be chosen with a bandgap energy

slightly less than the photon energy corresponding to the longest
operating wavelength of the system.
•This gives a sufficiently high absorption coefficient to ensure a good
response
 Introduction to Photodetectors
There are several photodetector types:
Photodiodes, Phototransistors, Photon multipliers, Photoresistors etc.

Photodetector Requirements for Communications

• High sensitivity (responsivity) at the desired wavelength and low
responsivity elsewhere  high wavelength selectivity
• Low noise and reasonable cost
• Fast response time  high bandwidth
• Insensitive to temperature variations
• Compatible physical dimensions
• Long operating life
Due to above requirements, only photodiodes are used as detectors in optical
communication systems
i. Avalanche Photo Diode (APD)
An internal gain of M due to self multiplication
ii. Positive-Intrinsic-Negative (pin) photodiode
No internal gain
 Avalanche photodiodes (APD)
• Avalanche photodiode (APDs) can have much larger values of R,
as they are designed to provide an internal current gain in a way
similar to photomultiplier tubes. They are used when the amount
of optical power that can be spared for the receiver is limited.
• The physical phenomenon behind the internal current gain is
known as the impact ionization. Under certain conditions, an
accelerating electron can acquire sufficient energy to generate
a new electron–hole pair.
• The energetic electron gives a part of its kinetic energy to another
electron in the valence band that ends up in the conduction band,
leaving behind a hole. The net result of impact ionization is that a
single primary electron, generated through absorption of a photon,
creates many secondary electrons and holes, all of which
contribute to the photodiode current. Of course, the primary
hole can also generate secondary electron–hole pairs that
contribute to the current.
 Avalanche photodiodes (APD)
• Asymmetric doped p-n junction - Reverse-biased PN diode

• In short in APD
– The internal gain of the APD is obtained by having a high electric field
that energizes photo-generated electrons and holes
– These electrons and holes ionize bound electrons in the valence band upon
colliding with them
– This mechanism is known as impact ionization
– The newly generated electrons and holes are also accelerated by the high
electric field
– They gain enough energy to cause further impact ionization
– This phenomena is the avalanche effect
 Avalanche photodiodes (APD)
 The internal gain mechanism in an APD increases the signal
current into the amplifier and so improves the SNR.
 However, the dark current and quantum noise are increased
by the multiplication process and may become a limiting factor.
 This is because the random gain mechanism introduces excess
noise into the receiver in terms of increased shot noise above
the level that would result from amplifying only the primary
shot noise.
 pin photodetector
 Consists of p- and n-type semiconductor materials separated by a
undoped or a very lightly n-doped intrinsic region
 In normal operating conditions, a sufficiently large reverse bias
voltage is applied across the device
 The reverse bias ensures that the intrinsic region is depleted of any
charge carriers

All the absorption takes place in the depletion region. The intrinsic
region can be an n-type material that is lightly doped, and to make a
low-resistance contact a highly doped n-type (n+) layer is added.
 pin photodiode
• Since the middle layer consists of nearly intrinsic material, such a
structure is referred to as the p-i-n photodiode.
• Because of its intrinsic nature, the middle i-layer offers a high
resistance, and most of the voltage drop occurs across it.
• As a result, a large electric field exists in the i-layer. In essence, the
depletion region extends throughout the i-region, and its width W
can be controlled by changing the middle-layer thickness.
• The main difference from the p-n photodiode is that the drift
component of the photocurrent dominates over the diffusion
component simply because most of the incident power is absorbed
inside the i-region of a p-i-n photodiode.
pin photodiode
A p-i-n photodiode consists
of an intrinsic region
sandwiched between heavily
doped p+ and n+
regions. The depletion layer
is almost completely defined
by the intrinsic region.

 In practice, the intrinsic

region does not have to be
truly intrinsic but only has to
be highly resistive (lightly
doped p or n region).

hc 1.24
c   μm
Eg Eg (eV )
Cut off wavelength depends on the band gap energy
 Physical Principles of pin Photodiodes
• As a photon flux Φ penetrates into a semiconductor, it will be
absorbed as it progresses through the material.
• If αs(λ) is the photon absorption coefficient at a wavelength λ, the
power level at a distance x into the material is

Absorbed photons trigger

photocurrent Ip in the
external circuitry
Photocurrent  Incident
Light Power
• The depletion-layer width W in a p-i-n diode does not vary significantly with
bias voltage but is essentially fixed by the thickness, di, of the intrinsic region so
that W ≈ di.
• The internal capacitance(or junction capacitance) of a p-i-n diode can be
designed:
Ci= 𝞊A/W ≈ 𝞊A/ di
• This capacitance is essentially independent of the bias voltage, remaining
constant in operation.

Increasing the width of the depletion layer (where the generated carriers can be
transported by drift) increases the area available for capturing light
Increasing the width of the depletion layer reduces the junction capacitance and
thereby the RC time constant.
Reducing the ratio between the diffusion length and the drift length of the device
results in a greater proportion of the generated current being carried by the faster drift
process
 APD Vs PIN
•Positive-Intrinsic-Negative (PIN)
No internal gain
Low bias voltage [10-50 V @λ = 850 nm, 5-15 V@λ = 1300 –1550 nm]
Highly linear
Low dark current
Most widely used
•Avalanche Photo-Detector (APD)
Internal gain (increased sensitivity)
‘excess noise’ due to random nature of the self multiplying
process.
Best for high speed and highly sensitive receivers
Strong temperature dependence
Needs high bias voltage[250 V @ λ = 850 nm, 20-30 V @λ = 1300 –1550
nm]
Costly
Examples of Photon Absorption
 Quantum Efficiency
• The quantum efficiency η is the number of the electron–hole
carrier pairs generated per incident–absorbed photon of energy hν
and is given by

Ip is the photocurrent generated by a steady-state optical power

Pin incident on the photodetector.
 Responsivity ()
 The responsivity of a photodetector relates the electric current Ip
flowing in the device circuit to the optical power P incident on it.

q
Ip mA/mW
Ip / q  
 P0 h
P0 / h
 APD  PIN M
 Avalanche PD’s have an internal gain M

M 
IM IM : average value of the total multiplied current
Ip M = 1 for PIN diodes
 Small-signal equivalent circuits

• A photodiode has an internal resistance Ri and an internal capacitance Ci across its

junction.
• The series resistance Rs takes into account both resistance in the homogeneous
regions of the diode and parasitic resistance from the contacts.
• The external parallel capacitance Cp is the parasitic capacitance from the contacts
and the package.
• The series inductance Ls is the parasitic inductance from the wire or transmission-
line connections.
• The values of Rs, Cp, and Ls can be minimized with careful design, processing, and
packaging of the device.
• Both Ri and Ci depend on the size and the structure of the photodiode and vary
with the voltage across the junction.
Photodiode response to rectangular optical input pulses
for various detector parameters

•The frequency response of the equivalent circuit is determined by

The internal resistance Ri and capacitance Ci of the photodiode
The parasitic effects characterized by Rs, Cp, and Ls
The load resistance RL
•The parasitic effects must be eliminated as much as possible.
•A high-speed photodiode normally operates under the condition that Ri >> RL,Rs.
=> equivalent resistance ≈ RL
•In the simple case, when the parasitic inductance/capacitance are negligible, the
speed of the circuit is dictated by the RC time constant 𝞃RC = RLCi.
 Rise and fall times upon a square-pulse signal
• In the time domain, the speed of a photodetector is characterized
by the rise time, 𝞃r, and the fall time, 𝞃f, of its response to a square-
pulse signal.
• The risetime - the time interval for the response to rise from 10 to
90% of its peak value.
• The falltime - the time interval for the response to decay from 90 to
10% of its peak value.
• The risetime of the square-pulse response is determined by the RC
circuit-limited bandwidth of the photodetector.
 Rise and fall times upon a square-pulse signal
• Typical response of a photodetector to a square-pulse signal
=> the 3-dB bandwidth (for the RC circuit) is

𝞃r = 0.35/f3dB
 Photodetector Noise & SNR
• In fiber optic communication systems, the photodiode is generally
required to detect very weak optical signals.
• Detection of weak optical signals requires that the photodetector
and its amplification circuitry be optimized to maintain a given
signal-to-noise ratio.
• The power signal-to-noise ratio S/N (also designated by SNR) at
the output of an optical receiver is defined by
Signal power from photocurrent
SNR 
Detector Noise + Amplifier Noise
For high SNR
The Photodetector must have a large quantum efficiency (large
Responsivity or gain) to generate large signal current
Detector and amplifier noise must be low
Note:SNR Can NOT be improved by amplification
 Photodetector Current
• The direct current (DC) value is denoted by, IP ; capitol main entry
and capital suffix.
• The time varying (either randomly or periodically) current with a
zero mean is denoted by, ip small main entry and small suffix.

• Therefore, the total current Ip is the sum of the DC component IP

and the AC component ip .
I P  I p  ip
T /2
1
i p2  Lim T   p (t )dt
2
i
T T / 2
 Photocurrent noise
• Here we examine the properties of the electric current i(t) induced
in a circuit by a random photoelectron flux with mean 𝞍
• We include the effects of photon noise , photoelectron noise ,
and the characteristic time response of the detector and
circuitry (filtering)
• Assume every photoelectron-hole pair generates a pulse of
electric current with charge e and time duration 𝝉 p in the
external circuit of the photodetector.
• A photon stream incident on a photodetector therefore results in a
stream of current pulses which add together to constitute the
photocurrent i(t).
=> The randomness of the photo stream is transformed into a
fluctuating electric current. If the incident photons are Poisson
distributed, these fluctuations are known as shot noise.
 Quantum (Shot) Noise
•Quantum (Shot) noise: arises from statistical nature of the
production and collection of photo-generated electrons upon optical
illumination. It has been shown that the statistics follow a Poisson
process.
•Discrete nature of electrons causes a signal disturbance. Deviation of
the actual number of electrons from the average number is known as
shot noise.
•Present for BOTH current: Signal and dark current.
•Thus, shot noise is due to optical power fluctuation because light is
made up of discrete number of photons

iQ2  2qI p BM 2 F (M )
B: Bandwidth, F(M) is the noise figure and generally is F (M )  M 0  x  1.0
x

•For pin photodiode

iQ2  2qI p B
 Dark/Leakage Current Noise
•When there is no optical power incident on the photodetector a small
reverse leakage current still flows from the device terminals (some dark
& leakage current).
•Dark-current noise results from random electron-hole pairs generated
thermally (or by tunneling).
•This dark current contributes to the total system noise and gives
random fluctuations about the average photocurrent.
=> It therefore manifests itself as shot noise on the photocurrent.
•This current generates two types of noise
Bulk Dark Current Noise ID: Dark
M = 1 for pin detector i2
DB  2qI D BM F ( M )
2
Current

2
iDB  2qI D B For pin photodetector

Surface Leakage
Current Noise
2
iDS  2qI L B IL: Leakage Current
(not multiplied by M)
 Thermal Noise
•Thermal noise (also called Johnson noise or Nyquist noise) results
from random thermal motions of the electrons in a conductor.
•Because only materials that can absorb and dissipate energy can emit
blackbody radiation, thermal noise is generated only by the resistive
components of the detector and its circuit. (Capacitive and inductive
components do not generate thermal noise because they neither
dissipate nor emit energy.)
• These motions give rise to a random electric current even in the
absence of an external electrical power source.
•The thermal electric current in a resistance R is a random function i(t)
whose mean value i(t) = 0.
The photodetector load resistor RL contributes to thermal (Johnson)
noise current
KB: Boltzmann’s constant = 1.38054 X 10(-23) J/K
i2
T  4 K BTB / RL T is the absolute Temperature

 Quantum and Thermal are the important noise mechanisms in all

optical receivers
SNR & Amplifier noise consideration
The noise associated with the amplifier, iamp can be combined with
the thermal noise from the load resistor it using the noise figure, Fn
for the amplifier to give:
4 KTBFn
i i
t
2 2
amp 
RL

Receiver signal to noise ratio (SNR)

S S I p2
SNR   
2eB I p  I d  
Total Noise N 4 KTBFn
RL
 Total Receiver noise consideration
Considering the dark current from PIN and the enhancement to
thermal noise from the components other than the load resistor in the
linear channel, the total noise variance is:
4kBT
itotal  [2q( I p  I dark )  Fn ]B
RL
I d , Fn : the PIN dark current and the amplifier noise figure
Receiver signal to noise ratio
R 2 Pin2
SNR 
4k BT
PIN receiver: [2q ( RPin  I d )  Fn ]B
RL

M 2 R 2 Pin2
APD receiver: SNR 
4k BT
[2qM 2 FA ( RPin  I d )  Fn ]B
RL
Noise Calculation Example
 Limiting Cases for SNR
• When the optical signal power is relatively high, then the shot noise power is
much greater than the thermal noise power. In this case the SNR is called shot-
noise limited or quantum noise limited.
i p2
• In the shot current limited case the SNR is: SNR 
2q ( I p ) F ( M ) B
• When the optical signal power is low, then thermal noise usually dominates
over the shot noise. In this case the SNR is referred to as being thermal-noise
limited.
PIN APD
Shot noise SNR ~ Pin / FA
limited SNR ~ Pin
(worse)
Thermal 2
noise
SNR ~ P in SNR ~ M 2 Pin2
limited (large load impedance (better)
required)
 Optical receiver
Consider signal path through an Optical Link
 Fundamental Receiver Operation
• The first receiver element is a pin or an avalanche photodiode, which produces
an electric current proportional to the received power level.
• Since this electric current typically is very weak, a front-end amplifier boosts it
to a level that can be used by the following electronics.
• After being amplified, the signal passes through a low-pass filter to reduce the
noise that is outside of the signal bandwidth.
• Also filter can reshape (equalize) the pulses that have become distorted as they
traveled through the fiber.
• Together with a clock (timing) recovery circuit, a decision circuit decides
whether a 1 or 0 pulse was received,
 Direct-Detection Receivers
The purpose of the receiver is:
 To convert the optical signal to electrical domain
 Recover data

Optical detection
• The received signal is applied directly to photodetector
• Photo-detection of light represents the key operation in the optical receiver.
• Converting the collected field onto a current or voltage.
 Coherent-Detection Receiver
 For detecting weak signal, coherent detection scheme is applied
where the signal is mixed with a single-frequency strong locally
generated signal (local oscillator signal).
 The mixing process converts the weak signal to an intermediate
frequency (IF) in the RF for improved detection and processing.
 Coherent Detection Systems
ADVANTAGES:
•Coherent detection can provide a potential improvement up to 20 dB
in the receiver sensitivity unlike direct-detection-based systems
 For a given power budget, this would allow to increase the total
length of an optical link (or spacing between repeaters/amplifiers)
 Higher transmission rates over existing optical links without
reducing repeater spacing is achieved
• Efficient use of the available bandwidth
Allows to transmit simultaneously several carriers (frequency
multiplexing)
Channel spacing can be reduced to 1 - 10 GHz.
IM/DD uses channel spacing upto 100 GHz.

DISADVANTAGES:
Receivers become more complex
Sensitivity to the optical carrier’s phase and frequency degradation in
reception
 Coherent Detection Schemes
• Homodyne detection
– The optical signal is demodulated directly to the baseband.
– It requires a local oscillator whose frequency match the
carrier signal and whose phase is locked to the
incoming signal ( c= LO).
– Information can be transmitted through amplitude,
phase, or frequency modulation
• Heterodyne detection
– Neither optical phase locking nor frequency matching is of the
local oscillator is required ( c  LO).
– Information can be transmitted through amplitude,
phase, or frequency modulation
 Coherent Detection Systems
Modulated signal: ES  AS exp[  j(c t  S )]

Local oscillator signal: E LO  A LO exp[  j(LO t  LO )]

•The output power of the photodetector
P(t )  PS  PLO  2 PS PLO cos(IF t   )

where AS2 2
ALO
PS  , PLO  , IF  c  LO ,   S  LO
2 2
•if 𝜔IF = 0, coherent system with homodyne detection
•if 𝜔IF ≠ 0, coherent system with heterodyne detection

E  Es  E LO  As cos(ωct  s )  A LO cos(ωt  LO )
2
 As   ALO 
2
 As  ALO 
P(t )        2   cos(IF t   )
  
 2 0x   2   2  2 
 Homodyne detection
• When the local oscillator frequency equals to optical carrier frequency:
𝜔IF = 𝜔s = 𝜔OL = 0
• The photocurrent generated by the optical detector is proportional to the optical
power (or optical intensity) :
I (t )  R( PS  PLO )  2 R PS PLO cos(s  LO )

I (t )  2 R PS PLO cos(s  LO ) This information can not be

detected in direct detection
systems
I (t )  PLO  PS  PLO  Ps  PLO , where DC be e lim inated
Assuming: 𝟇s=𝟇LO , there is an improvement of SNR:
 Heterodyne detection Systems.

Optical Signal Input Beam Combiner

Photo- BP Delay LP
Detector F F
Baseband Signal Output
Local Optical Carrier
Oscillator Recover
y
• In which the IF modulated signal is mixed with an IF carrier recovered from the IF
signal. At the output of the mixer the baseband signal is received which is filtered
by a low pass filter and fed to the decision circuit.
• Heterodyne detection needs neither frequency matching nor phase locking.
• The detected electrical signal is carried by the intermediate frequency and must be
demodulated again to the baseband.
• This demodulation scheme can be used for ASK, FSK or PSK modulation formats.
P(t )  PS  PLO  2 PS PLO cos(IF t   )

where AS2 2
ALO
PS  , PLO  , IF  c  LO ,   S  LO
2 2
 Bit Error Rate and Bit Error Probability
 Bit Error Rate (BER) is defined as the ratio of the number of wrong
bits over the number of total bits or BER is the ratio of erroneous bits
to correct bits.
The more the signal is affected, the more bits are incorrect.
The BER is the fundamental specification of the performance
requirement of a digital communication system
It is an important concept to understand in any digital transmission
system since it is a major indicator of the health of the system.
It’s important to know what portion of the bits are in error so you
can determine how much margin the system has before failure.
 Probability of Error (BER)
• A simple way to measure the error rate in a digital data stream is to
divide the number Ne of errors occurring over a certain time
interval t by the number Nt of pulses (ones and zeros) transmitted
during this interval.
• This is the bit-error rate (BER)

Here B is the bit rate.

• Typical error rates for optical fiber telecom systems range from
10–9 to 10–12 (compared to 10-6 for wireless systems)
• The error rate depends on the signal-to-noise ratio at the receiver
(the ratio of signal power to noise power).
 Number of Photon
• Receiver sensitivity can be expressed in terms of number of photons Np contained
within a single 1 bit.
• Light is described as a stream of photons (quanta). The theory of quantum states that
the energy of a photon is proportional to the frequency of light
Ehf
Where the Plank constant h = 6.6261  10-34 W s2
• Let P the optical power of a light beam, then the number of photons per second is:
P
N
hf
• For modulated optical signal with power P(t), the instantaneous photon intensity
(photon flux) varies with time:
P( t )
N p (t) 
hf
• For a pin-diode photodetector, the average number of electron-hole pairs generated
in a time interval of T is given by
 T
E
m
hf  P(t )dt 
0
hf
 Number of Photon for the ideal receiver
• Consider an ideal OOK transmission system over an ideal channel
• The transmitter sends light for a one
• No light for a zero
• The receiver counts N, the number of photons it receives in a bit
interval of T seconds, and zero otherwise

• If a zero is transmitted, then there is a zero probability of receiving

zero photons.
• If a one is transmitted, then the photons arrive according to a
Poisson process with mean m
(m ) N e m
Pr [ N photons / ONE ] 
N!
BER Analysis for IM/Direct Detection for OOK
BER Analysis for IM/Direct Detection for OOK
 BER Analysis for IM/Direct Detection
•The bit error rate can be computed as:
BER  p(1)P(0 / 1)  p(0)P(1 / 0)
where
• Pr(0/1) is the probability that a "0" is received when a "1" is transmitted.
• Pr(1/0) is the probability that a "1" is received when a "0" is transmitted

 The values of Pr(0/1) and Pr(1/0) depends on the statistical nature

of the output signal in the presence of noise.
For a binary symmetric channel, p(0) = p(1) = 1/2 which indicates
equal probability of occurrence for a "1" and a "0" bit.
The output signal current is given by
i1  I1  i n bit "1"
i0  I0  i n bit "0"

Where in is the noise current due to shot and thermal noise.

 BER Analysis for IM/Direct Detection
•The bit error rate can be computed as:
BER  p(1)P(0 / 1)  p(0)P(1 / 0)
1 1
BER  P(0 / 1)  P(1 / 0)
2 2
1 1
BER  P(0 / 1)  .0
2 2
1 1 (m )0 e  m e m
BER  Pr [0 photons / ONE ]  
2 2 0! 2
• It is possible that no photons arrive when a ONE is transmitted.
This leads to a probability of error or a Bit-error-ratio (BER),

e m
BER 
2
• It indicates a minimum signal power required by an OOK receiver
to achieve a given BER
 BER Analysis for IM/Direct Detection
• Example: Letting BER= 10-9 gives m = 20.03.
Hence, to achieve a BER of 10-9, the pulse must have an optical
energy corresponding to an average of 20 photons.
On average, half the signal intervals contain optical pulses, and
the average number per transmitted bit is:

m
 10 photons / bit
2
 The Quantum Limit
• The minimum received optical power required for a specific bit-
error rate performance in a digital system.
• This power level is called the quantum limit, since all system
parameters are assumed ideal and the performance is limited only
by the detection statistics.