Direct Detection Avalanche Photodiode Receiver Design For The NASA/DDLT

Abstract

A low noise avalanche photodiode (APD) receiver has been developed for the NASA Direct Detection Laser Transceiver Program. The hermetically sealed receiver includes the focusing lens, solar reject filter, APD and low noise amplifier. A low-noise silicon APD was integrated with a hybrid low noise amplifier. The radiation-hardened APD/LNA provides superior wideband receiver performance. The receiver sensitivity is -52 dBm (123 photons per bit), at 220 MBPS manchester with a 10-6 BER. This is the most sensitive manchester receiver reported in the technical literature, at 220 MBPS.