Abstract
The fully integrated 800 μm. diameter avalanche photodiode optical receiver is implemented in 0.35 μm BiCMOS technology without any process modifications. The integrated receiver reaches sensitivities of -33 dBm at 1 Gbit/s and -29.3 dBm at 2 Gbit/s. The reached sensitivities are well within the state-of-the-art of integrated avalanche photodiode receivers and can even be compared to a hybrid avalanche photodiode receiver comprised of high-performing commercial components. The performance of the designed receiver was verified in visible light communication experiments. The receiver could reach up to 16.5 m at 2 Gbit/s and 27 m at 1 Gbit/s of error free transmission distance using a 675-nm point laser source as transmitter. The common indoor illuminance levels up to 500 lux could be tolerated when pointed directly towards the receiver. High sensitivity and high speed make this integrated receiver suitable for future optical wireless communication systems, where due to its integrated nature the manufacturing cost can be lowered, and at the same time the design is compact in size and easy to assemble and scale. Furthermore, no optics is used in front of the receiver due to its large area resulting in a wide field of view.
Highlights
The constant increase of mobile data traffic and excessive use of highly networked devices highlight the need for high-speed enabling technologies
The implementation of avalanche photodiodes (APD) in the used 0.35 μm BiCMOS technology together with electrical circuitry was studied in previous works, [7], [8], when 200 μm diameter and 400 μm diameter APDs were co-integrated with custom transimpedance amplifiers
The large-area APD receiver is appropriate for data rates up to 2 Gbit/s, offering high sensitivities which are comparable to hybrid APD receivers which profit from the high performance of commercial APDs
Summary
The constant increase of mobile data traffic and excessive use of highly networked devices highlight the need for high-speed enabling technologies. The study in [5] recognized the receiver sensitivity as one of the main challenges for Gbit OWC and pointed out the need for avalanche photodiodes (APD) that have inherent gain mechanism in contrast to their PIN counterparts which are usually a standard option for optical receiver. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the largest active area integrated APD receiver in a standard technology which in addition is fully capable for Gbit operation without the need for segmenting the photodiode as in [6]. To increase the performance gains and examine the limits of technology, the diameter of the used APD was chosen to be doubled with respect to a maximum diameter in a previous design run. A possible use case based on achieved error-free communication distances of tens of meters using this lens-free wide angle APD receiver could enable communication over a highly automated production hall with either fixed point laser sources or steerable ones, see Fig. 1
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
