Practically implementable high-sensitivity 10-Gbit/s avalanche photodiode using inverted p-down design

Abstract

We developed a practical high-sensitivity 10-Gbit/s III-V compound-based avalanche photodiode (APD), and an receiver optical subassembly (ROSA) mounting the APD for 10-Gbit/s burst-mode operation. The 10-Gbit/s APD features an inverted p-down structure with a 200-nm InAlAs avalanche layer that produces low excess noise and a low dark current simultaneously at large gain. By combining our APD with a burst-mode trans-impedance amplifier (B-TIA), the resulting APD-ROSA exhibited -32.7 dBm for 10-Gbit/s burst-mode optical signals, which allows for a loss budget exceeding 35 dB on optical access networks such as passive-optical networks.