Avalanche Photodiode Noise Research Articles

Analysis of noise and its characteristics in avalanche photodiode

Avalanche photodiodes (APDs) produce noise during operation, which affects the device performance. However, the previous research on its noise is mainly theoretical analysis and is only reflected as optical noise. Therefore, according to the characteristics of APD material and the mechanism of noise generation, the main noise of the device is analyzed in this paper. First, the test method of noise in APDs is established, including testing of dark noise, optical noise, and multiplication noise in high frequency bands. The main noises in APDs are 1/f noise, thermal noise, shot noise, generation recombination noise, and multiplication shot noise, and shot noise is suppressed by Fermi–Dirac distribution and Coulomb action. Second, the reliability of APDs is evaluated by measuring and analyzing the noise parameters of the device through thermal aging experiments. It is concluded that the defects introduced by thermal aging can be reflected by the change in noise, which is consistent with the results in the literature. This method can comprehensively obtain the noise in APDs, which is helpful to improve the working efficiency, life, and reliability of the device.

High electric field characteristics of GaAsSb photodiodes on InP substrates

Low noise avalanche photodiodes (APDs) detecting 1550 nm wavelength play a crucial role in optical communication and LiDAR systems. These APDs utilize a separate absorption, charge, and multiplication (SACM) architecture with an absorber for 1400–1650 nm detection and a low noise, high gain multiplier that can be independently optimized for a high signal-to-noise ratio. Recently, GaAs0.5Sb0.5/Al0.85Ga0.15As0.56Sb0.44 SACM APDs have demonstrated ultra-high gain and extremely low noise, possibly improving sensitivity over Si and InGaAs/InP commercial APDs. This accomplishment was achieved using a GaAsSb absorber instead of a conventional InGaAs absorber, mitigating band discontinuities between the absorber and the multiplier. However, further optimization is required to reduce noise due to tunneling and impact ionization from the GaAsSb absorber, which occurs at a high electric field region. This paper focuses on the study of the high-field characteristics of GaAsSb photodiodes (PDs). The tunneling phenomenon is analyzed through current density-voltage measurements, and the impact ionization behavior is evaluated by measuring the multiplication of p-i-n GaAsSb PDs. The result suggests that when designing a SACM APD with a GaAsSb absorber, the electric field in the absorber can be increased to 175 kV/cm without the detrimental effects of ionization occurring in the absorber. The findings from this investigation will assist in optimizing GaAsSb-based SACM APDs and promoting further advancements in the 1550 nm APD technology.

The front-end electronics upgrade of the CMS ECAL barrel

The barrel part of the CMS electromagnetic calorimeter (ECAL) consists of 61200 PbWO4 crystals coupled to avalanche photodiodes (APDs). A decrease of the ECAL operating temperature from 18 °C to 9 °C is needed to mitigate the increase in APD noise from radiation-induced dark current in the conditions of the high luminosity upgrade of the LHC. Moreover, a full re-design of the front-end electronics has been undertaken in order to deal with the increase of pileup events and to improve the rejection of anomalous signals generated from direct interaction with the APDs. The VFE (Very Front-End) card will be equipped with two new ASICs: a fast trans-impedance amplifier named CATIA as well as a data conversion and compression ASIC named LiTE-DTU. The VFE will interface with the radiation tolerant LpGBT transceiver and the VTRx+ optical board, while trigger primitive generation will be moved off-detector to FPGA-based processors. The CATIA ASIC has a single input and two differential outputs with different gains in order to have better resolution for low energy signals. CATIA is designed in commercial CMOS 130 nm technology and can be controlled via an I2C interface. The LiTE-DTU ASIC embeds two 12-bit 160 MS/s ADCs, a sample selection logic, a lossless compression digital logic, and a 1.28 Gb/s serializer that will directly interface with the LpGBT e-links. LiTE-DTU is designed in commercial CMOS 65 nm technology. It embeds a PLL for the generation of the low jitter 1.28 GHz clock required by the ADCs and the serializer. Both ASICs have been extensively tested in lab and beam tests. This new system has been verified to fulfill the requirements of the experiment in terms of performance and radiation tolerance. The ASICs are now in the pre-production phase.

Evolution of Low-Noise Avalanche Photodetectors

This paper reviews materials and structural approaches that have been developed to reduce the excess noise in avalanche photodiodes and increase the gain-bandwidth product.

Low Excess Noise of Al0.85Ga0.15As0.56Sb0.44 Avalanche Photodiode From Pure Electron Injection

Avalanche photodiodes (APDs) are used in optical receivers of high-speed optical communication systems to improve signal-to-noise ratio over conventional photodiodes. Low excess noise characteristics are crucial for APDs to preserve the benefits associated with high internal gains. In this work, we presented room temperature data of avalanche gain and excess noise factors of Al <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">0.85</sub> Ga <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">0.15</sub> As <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">0.56</sub> Sb <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">0.44</sub> APDs using pure and mixed carrier injection profiles. Using pure electron injection, the best possible excess noise performance for a given avalanche width was measured with an excess noise factor <; 2 for gains up to 25. This is the lowest excess noise reported for this material system at high gain. Two other injection profiles with increased portion of injected holes worsened the excess noise performance, confirming the need to use pure electron injection for the best possible APD noise performance. The data reported in this article is available from the ORDA digital repository (https://doi.org/10.15131/shef.data.15082455).

Valence band engineering of GaAsBi for low noise avalanche photodiodes

Avalanche Photodiodes (APDs) are key semiconductor components that amplify weak optical signals via the impact ionization process, but this process’ stochastic nature introduces ‘excess’ noise, limiting the useful signal to noise ratio (or sensitivity) that is practically achievable. The APD material’s electron and hole ionization coefficients (α and β respectively) are critical parameters in this regard, with very disparate values of α and β necessary to minimize this excess noise. Here, the analysis of thirteen complementary p-i-n/n-i-p diodes shows that alloying GaAs with ≤ 5.1 % Bi dramatically reduces β while leaving α virtually unchanged—enabling a 2 to 100-fold enhancement of the GaAs α/β ratio while extending the wavelength beyond 1.1 µm. Such a dramatic change in only β is unseen in any other dilute alloy and is attributed to the Bi-induced increase of the spin-orbit splitting energy (∆so). Valence band engineering in this way offers an attractive route to enable low noise semiconductor APDs to be developed.

Characteristics of thin InAlAs digital alloy avalanche photodiodes.

InP-based avalanche photodiodes (APDs) are widely used in short-wave infrared (SWIR) communications. In this work, a thin (200 nm nominal) InAlAs digital alloy layer consisting of two monolayer (ML) InAs and two ML AlAs was grown on InP substrate and investigated in detail. APDs with p-i-n and n-i-p structures were fabricated and characterized. The current-voltage, capacitance-voltage characteristics, and excess noise were measured at room temperature with different laser wavelengths, and the measured effective k value (ratio of impact ionization coefficients) is about 0.15 with the multiplication gain up to 12. The randomly-generated path length (RPL) model was carried out to analyze the dead space effect. Our thin digital alloy successfully reduced excess noise compared with conventional In0.52Al0.48As random alloy without introducing new elements and shows the potential for high-speed, low noise APD applications.

Theoretical Analysis of AlAs₀.₅₆Sb₀.₄₄ Single Photon Avalanche Diodes With High Breakdown Probability

Single photon avalanche diodes (SPADs) are key enabling technologies for a wide range of applications in the near-infrared wavelength range. Recently, AlAs <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">0.56</sub> Sb <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">0.44</sub> (hereafter AlAsSb) lattice-matched to InP has been demonstrated for extremely low excess noise avalanche photodiodes (APDs) due to its large disparity between electron and hole ionization coefficients ( <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\alpha $ </tex-math></inline-formula> and <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\beta $ </tex-math></inline-formula> respectively). The <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\alpha /\beta $ </tex-math></inline-formula> ratio also plays a role in Geiger mode operation as it affects the avalanche breakdown probability and hence detection efficiency. In this work, we theoretically investigate the performance of AlAsSb based SPADs. The probability of breakdown for electron-initiated Geiger mode operation increases more sharply with multiplication region width due to progressively more dissimilar ionization coefficients. In comparison with other common avalanche materials, such as InAlAs, InP and Si, our result also suggests that SPADs based on AlAsSb have a sharper breakdown probability than the other three materials under similar low overbias ratio. The calculated breakdown probability of 0.81 in AlAsSb is 0.18 and 0.28 higher than that of InAlAs/Si and InP respectively at 5% overbias ratio and with avalanche region width of 1500 nm.

An excess noise measurement system for weak responsivity avalanche photodiodes

A system for measuring, with reduced photocurrent, the excess noise associated with the gain in avalanche photodiodes (APDs), using a transimpedance amplifier front-end and based on phase-sensitive detection is described. The system can reliably measure the excess noise power of devices, even when the un-multiplied photocurrent is low (~10 nA). This is more than one order of magnitude better than previously reported systems and represents a significantly better noise signal to noise ratio. This improvement in performance has been achieved by increasing the value of the feedback resistor and reducing the op-amp bandwidth. The ability to characterise APD performance with such low photocurrents enables the use of low power light sources such as light emitting diode rather than lasers to investigate the APD noise performance.

An Improved Nonlocal History-Dependent Model for Gain and Noise in Avalanche Photodiodes Based on Energy Balance Equation

We present a nonlocal history-dependent model for impact ionization gain and noise in avalanche photodiodes (APDs) especially suited for staircase APDs. The model uses a simple energy balance equation to define effective electric fields valid also in the presence of band discontinuities which are then used to express the ionization coefficients. The model parameters have been calibrated against literature data for gain and noise in GaAs and Al x Ga1− x As $({x} = {0.2}, {0.6}, {0.8})$ p-i-n diodes. Application to the experimental data for gain and noise in heterojunction and staircase separate absorption and multiplication APDs is reported to demonstrate the ability of the model in describing complex APD structures. It is found that, in spite of conduction band discontinuities being much larger than valence band ones, hole impact ionization contributes a significant degradation of the noise metrics in GaAs/AlGaAs staircase APDs. These nontrivial insights demonstrate the usefulness of the model to steer device design and optimization.

Determination of the excess noise of avalanche photodiodes integrated in 0.35-μm CMOS technologies

The excess noise of avalanche photodiodes (APDs) integrated in a high-voltage (HV) CMOS process and in a pin-photodiode CMOS process, both with 0.35-μm structure sizes, is described. A precise excess noise measurement technique is applied using a laser source, a spectrum analyzer, a voltage source, a current meter, a cheap transimpedance amplifier, and a personal computer with a MATLAB program. In addition, usage for on-wafer measurements is demonstrated. The measurement technique is verified with a low excess noise APD as a reference device with known ratio k = 0.01 of the impact ionization coefficients. The k-factor of an APD developed in HV CMOS is determined more accurately than known before. In addition, it is shown that the excess noise of the pin-photodiode CMOS APD depends on the optical power for avalanche gains above 35 and that modulation doping can suppress this power dependence. Modulation doping, however, increases the excess noise.

Thin $\text{Al}_{\mathbf{1{-}}{\boldsymbol x}}$ Ga$_{\boldsymbol{x}}$As $_{\mathbf{0.56}}$Sb $_{\mathbf{0.44}}$ Diodes With Low Excess Noise

Thin avalanche layers have been adopted to achieve low excess noise and high-gain bandwidth products in InP and InAlAs avalanche photodiodes. In this paper, we report the excess noise characterization in a series of $\text{Al}_{\mathbf{1{-}}{\boldsymbol x}}$ Ga $_{\boldsymbol{x}}$ As $_{\mathbf{0.56}}$ Sb $_{\mathbf{0.44}}$ ( $x\,= \,0,\,0.05$ , 0.1, 0.15) diodes with avalanche layer thickness of 110–116 nm. These alloys, lattice matched to InP, showed lower excess noise than InP and InAlAs. Dark current, most probably originating from surface leakage, was observed to be lower in composition with higher Ga concentration. Avalanche gain and excess noise measurements using lasers of 543 and 633 nm wavelengths indicated that at a given electric field, the electron ionization coefficient is larger than the hole ionization coefficient. Using the 543 nm laser, low excess noise data corresponding to an effective ionization coefficient ratio of $k\,= \,0.1$ in the conventional excess noise theory was measured in $\text{Al}_{\mathbf{1{-}}{\boldsymbol x}}$ Ga $_{\boldsymbol{x}}$ As $_{\mathbf{0.56}}$ Sb $_{\mathbf{0.44}}$ ( $x\,= \,0.05$ , 0.1, 0.15), although pure electron injection was not achieved. Our results demonstrated the potential of using $\text{Al}_{\mathbf{1{-}}{\boldsymbol x}}$ Ga $_{\boldsymbol{x}}$ As $_{\mathbf{0.56}}$ Sb $_{\mathbf{0.44}}$ ( $x\,= \,0.05$ , 0.1, 0.15) as replacement for InP and InAlAs for high speed and low excess noise avalanche photodiodes. The data reported in this paper is available from the ORDA digital repository ( https://doi.org/10.15131/shef.data.5155822 ).

Carrier trajectory tracking equations for Simple-band Monte Carlo simulation of avalanche multiplication processes

Avalanche photodiodes (APDs) with steep electric field gradients generally have low excess noise that arises from carrier multiplication within the internal gain of the devices, and the Monte Carlo (MC) method is among popular device simulation tools for such devices. However, there are few articles relating to carrier trajectory modeling in MC models for such devices. In this work, a set of electric-field-gradient-dependent carrier trajectory tracking equations are developed and used to update the positions of carriers along the path during Simple-band Monte Carlo (SMC) simulations of APDs with non-uniform electric fields. The mean gain and excess noise results obtained from the SMC model employing these equations show good agreement with the results reported for a series of silicon diodes, including a p+n diode with steep electric field gradients. These results confirm the validity and demonstrate the feasibility of the trajectory tracking equations applied in SMC models for simulating mean gain and excess noise in APDs with non-uniform electric fields. Also, the simulation results of mean gain, excess noise, and carrier ionization positions obtained from the SMC model of this work agree well with those of the conventional SMC model employing the concept of a uniform electric field within a carrier free-flight. These results demonstrate that the electric field variation within a carrier free-flight has an insignificant effect on the predicted mean gain and excess noise results. Therefore, both the SMC model of this work and the conventional SMC model can be used to predict the mean gain and excess noise in APDs with highly non-uniform electric fields.

On the analytical formulation of excess noise in avalanche photodiodes with dead space.

Simple, approximate formulas are developed to calculate the mean gain and excess noise factor for avalanche photodiodes using the dead-space multiplication theory in the regime of small multiplication width and high applied electric field. The accuracy of the approximation is investigated by comparing it to the exact numerical method using recursive coupled integral equations and it is found that it works for dead spaces up to 15% of the multiplication width, which is substantial. The approximation is also tested for real materials such as GaAs, InP and Si for various multiplication widths, and the results found are accurate within ∼ 15% of the actual noise, which is a significant improvement over the local-theory noise formula. The results obtained for the mean gain also confirm the recently reported relationship between experimentally determined local ionization coefficients and the enabled non-local ionization coefficients.

Optical Code-Division Multiplexing (OCDM) Networks Adopting Code-Shift Keying/Overlapping PPM Signaling: Proposal and Performance Analysis

Optical code-division multiplexing (OCDM) systems use short pulses compared with bit-duration to achieve high transmission rate. The use of short pulses poses several problems as a result of group velocity dispersion (GVD), intersymbol interference (ISI) (due to avalanche photodiode (APD) buildup time), and receivers limited bandwidth. In this paper, an OCDM system employing code-shift keying (CSK) and overlapping pulse-position modulation (OPPM) signaling is proposed and theoretically investigated. By using CSK while maintaining same data rate, the chip duration can be increased to counteract the GVD effect in 2D OCDM systems. Moreover, by increasing the chip duration, the chip rate is decreased and the stringent requirement on receiver bandwidth is relaxed. In addition, using overlapping property in OPPM allows for further chip duration increase. We consider using correlation receivers with hard-limiters and APDs at the receiver side. The bit error probability (BEP) of the proposed system is derived taking into account the impacts of APD noise, thermal noise, GVD, ISI, and multiple-access interference (MAI). A performance comparison between OOK-, PPM-, OPPM-OCDM and the proposed system is carried out. Our results reveal that the use of CSK/OPPM-OCDM with data rate constraint allows the reduction of MAI, GVD and ISI effects with improved spectral efficiency.

The CMS electromagnetic calorimeter barrel upgrade for High-Luminosity LHC

The High Luminosity LHC (HL-LHC) will provide unprecedented instantaneous and integrated luminosity. The lead tungstate crystals forming the barrel part of the CMS Electromagnetic Calorimeter (ECAL) will still perform well, even after the expected 3000 fb−1 at the end of HL-LHC. The scintillation light from the crystals is measured with avalanche photodiodes (APDs). Although the APDs will continue to be operational, there will be some increase in noise due to radiation-induced dark-currents. Triggering on electromagnetic objects with ~140 pileup events necessitates a change of the front-end electronics. New developments in high-speed optical links will allow single-crystal readout at 40 MHz to upgraded off-detector processors, allowing maximum flexibility and enhanced triggering possibilities. The very-front- end system will also be upgraded, to provide improved rejection of anomalous signals in the APDs as well as to mitigate the increase in APD noise. We are also considering lowering the ECAL barrel operating temperature from 18°C to about 8 ~10°C, in order to increase the scintillation light output and reduce the APD dark current.

InAs/GaSb superlattice infrared detectors

We report on the development of high-performance InAs/GaSb superlattice (SL) infrared (IR) detectors for the mid-wavelength (MWIR, 3–5μm) and long-wavelength (LWIR, 8–12μm) transmission window of the atmosphere. With a refined process technology, we are now able to fabricate dual-color focal plane arrays for the MWIR that excel at a very low number of noisy pixels. In an effort to correlate dark current and noise data of a larger number of devices, we found that for the description of the behavior in the white noise part of the spectrum, both, in InAs/GaSb SL photodiodes for the MWIR and the LWIR McIntyre’s well-known model for excess noise of avalanche photodiodes is, in general, much more suited than the commonly used shot noise model. The analysis of dark current contributions is a convenient method to identify limiting mechanisms and extract material parameters such as the minority carrier lifetime. We show that even in large area devices the contribution of the sidewall leakage path should not be ignored for this kind of investigation. Finally, we present our Al-free heterojunction device concept for reduced dark current.

First-principle prediction of single-carrier avalanche multiplication in chalcopyrite semiconductors

A critical requirement for high gain and low noise avalanche photodiodes is the single-carrier avalanche multiplication. We propose that the single-carrier avalanche multiplication can be achieved in materials with a limited width of the valence band resulting in a restriction of kinetic energy for holes while allowing electrons to participate in the multiplication cascade. This feature of the electric structure is not common to the majority of technologically relevant semiconductors, but it can be anticipated in chalcopyrite Cu(AlGa)Se2 alloys based on the presented electric structure calculations.

Time resolved gain and excess noise properties of InGaAs/InAlAs avalanche photodiodes with cascaded discrete gain layer multiplication regions

To predict pulse detection performance when implemented in high speed photoreceivers, temporally resolved measurements of a 10-stage InAlAs/InGaAs single carrier multiplication (SCM) avalanche photodiode (APD)'s avalanche response to short multi-photon laser pulses were explained using instantaneous (time resolved) pulse height statistics of the device's impulse response. Numeric models of the junction carrier populations as a function of the time following injection of a primary photo-electron were used to create the probability density functions (pdfs) of the instances of the avalanche buildup process. The numeric pdfs were used to generate low frequency gain and excess noise models, which were in good agreement with analytic models of multiple discrete low-gain-stage APDs and with measured excess noise data. The numeric models were then used to generate the instantaneous and cumulative instantaneous low order statistics of the instances of the impulse response. It is shown that during the early times of the impulse response, the SCM APDs have lower excess noise than the pseudo-DC measurements and the common APD models used to describe them. The methods of determining the time resolved low order statistics of APDs are described and the importance of using time-resolved models of APD gain and noise is discussed.

Impact of Light Reflection on Indoor Wireless Optical CDMA Systems

We present a study on evaluating the effects of multipath dispersion on indoor optical code division multiple access (CDMA) systems over optical wireless communication. The indoor propagation channel model which takes multiple reflecting surfaces into account is addressed. Theoretical analysis of the pulse response of direct light and reflected light is given. The bit error rate (BER) of this system is analyzed considering reflected light, background light, avalanche photo-diode noise, thermal noise, and multi-user interference. The results prove that the BER of the system is influenced by reflected light and that the effect of reflected light is related to room size and receiver position. With an increase in the number of users, the effect of reflected light becomes stronger and is a significant source of inter-symbol interference. It becomes clear that when optical CDMA is used in an indoor optical wireless system, the effect of reflected light is a key issue to be considered.