LED PERFORMANCE

CHARACTERISTICS
LED PERFORMANCE
CHARACTERISITCIS
 Once an LED is fabricated, measurements are made to
determine its electrical and optical characteristics.

 Intrinsically the LED is a very linear device in comparison

with the majority of injection lasers

 However, in practice LEDs do exhibit significant nonlinearities

which depend upon the configuration utilized
OPTICAL OUTPUT POWER
 OPTICAL OUTPUT POWER

antThe surface emitter radiates more optical power into air than edge emitting emitter and both
the devices are linear at moderate drive circuits.
h devices are reasonably linear at moderate drive currents.
OPTICAL OUTPUT POWER

ItThe edge emitting device exhibits a greater temperature dependence than the
surface emitter and that of SLD with its stimulated emission is strongly dependant
on junction temperaturedge-emitting device exhibits a greater temperature
dependence than the e othe junction temperature.
OPTICAL OUTPUT POWER
These characteristic show
the variation
s in output power
at a specific drive
current over the temperature
range 0 to 40 °.

The nonlinear nature of

the output characteristic
typical of SLDs can also be
with
observeda knee becoming
apparent at operating
temperaturean around 20 °C.
 OUTPUT SPECTRUM

Output spectrum for AlGaAs surface emitter with doped active region.
As osurface emitter with doped active region.
 OUTPUT SPECTRUM

OOutput spectra for an InGa AsP for surface emitter showing both lightly
doped and heavily doped cases.
 OUTPUT SPECTRUM

TTypical spectral output characteristics for InGa AsP surface and edge emitter
LEDs operating in the 1.3µm wavelength region.
output characterisitcs for InGaAsP surface and edge-emitter
OUTPUT SPECTRUM
 FREQUENCY RESPONSE AND
MODULATION BANDWIDTH
• The modulation bandwidth in optical communications may be
defined in either in electrical and optical terms.
• ELECTRICAL BANDWIDTH
• The frequency at which the electrical signal power has dropped to
half its constant value due to the modulated portion of the optical
signal.
• This corresponds to 3 db point or the frequency at which the output
electric power is reduced to 3 db with respect to input electric
power.
• OPTICAL BANDWIDTH
• Frequency at which the optical signal power has dropped to half its
original value.
 FREQUENCY RESPONSE &
MODULATION BANDWIDTH
Electrical bandwidth:
The ratio of the electric output power to the electric input power in decibels REdB is
given by:

Thus in the electrical regime the bandwidth may be defined by the frequency when
the
 FREQUENCY RESPONSE &
MODULATION BANDWIDTH
Optical bandwidth:
The ratio of the optical output power to the optical input power in decibels ROdB
is given by:

(due to the linear light/current relationships of the source and detector). Hence
the optical 3 dB points occur when the ratio of the currents is equal to 1 /2, and:

Therefore in the optical regime the bandwidth is defined by the frequencies at

which the output current has dropped to 1 /2 or 0.5 of the input current to the
system.
This corresponds to an electric power attenuation of 6 dB.
FREQUENCY RESPONSE &
MODULATION BANDWIDTH

TFrequency response for an optical fiber system showing electrical and optical
bandwidths
e frequency response for an optical fiber system showing electrical and optical
bandwidths.
FREQUENCY RESPONSE AND OPTICAL
BANDWIDTH
•  The optical bandwidth is significantly greater than the electrical
bandwidth.
• The optical bandwidth is 2 a factor of greater than the electrical
bandwidth.
• The modulation bandwidth of LEDs is generally determined by three
mechanisms.
• a) the doping level in the active layer
• b) the reduction in radiative lifetime due to injected carriers
• c) the parasitic capacitance of the device.
 FREQUENCY RESPONSE &
MODULATION BANDWIDTH
Assuming negligible parasitic capacitance, the speed at which an LED can be
directAssuming negligible parasitic capacitance the speed at which an LED can
be directly current modulated is limited by recombination lifetime of the
carriers. Where optical output power Pe( ω) of the device and angular
modulation frequency ω is given by
y current modulated is fundamentally limited by the recombination lifetime
arrier where the optical output power Pe; ωͿ of the device (with constant
peak cunt) and angular modulation frequency ω is given by
PROBLEMS

• The minority carrier recombination lifetime for an LED is 5 ns. When

a constant d.c. drive current is applied to the device the optical
output power is 300 μW. Determine the optical output power when
the device is modulated with an rms drive current corresponding to
the d.c. drive current at frequencies of (a) 20 MHz;
• b) 3 dB optical bandwidth for the device and estimate the 3 dB
electrical bandwidth assuming a Gaussian response.
Solution: (a) From Eq. the optical output power at 20 MHz is