16 channel GHz low noise SWIR photoreceivers

Abstract

Future NASA light detection and ranging (LIDAR) mapping systems require multi-channel receivers with high sensitivity and bandwidth operating at 1-1.5 μm wavelengths. One of the ways to improve the system performance is to improve the sensitivity of photoreceiver. InGaAs avalanche photodiode (APD) sensor technology is considered for this wavelength region because of high reliability. However, commercially available InGaAs APDs have low sensitivity due to the high excess-noise of InP material. Spectrolab has been developing low excess noise InGaAs avalanche photodiodes (APDs) with impact ionization engineering (I²E) structures and recently, APDs with excess noise factor of 0.15 have been demonstrated using an I²E design. Single channel photoreceivers built using low noise I²E APDs show a noise equivalent power (NEP) of 150 fW/rt(Hz) over a bandwidth of 1 GHz, a record for InGaAs based APDs. A 16 channel GHz SWIR photoreceiver was designed and built at Spectrolab. The photoreceiver was designed to work with a custom fiber bundle which couples the light from telescope to detectors. The photoreceiver shows a system level NEP less than 300 fW/rt(Hz) with 1 GHz bandwidth.