High sensitivity 10Gb/s Si photonic receiver based on a low-voltage waveguide-coupled Ge avalanche photodetector

H T Chen; J Verbist; P Verheyen; P De Heyn; G Lepage; J De Coster; P Absil; X Yin; J Bauwelinck; J Van Campenhout; G Roelkens

doi:10.1364/OE.23.000815

High sensitivity 10Gb/s Si photonic receiver based on a low-voltage waveguide-coupled Ge avalanche photodetector

Opt Express. 2015 Jan 26;23(2):815-22. doi: 10.1364/OE.23.000815.

Authors

H T Chen, J Verbist, P Verheyen, P De Heyn, G Lepage, J De Coster, P Absil, X Yin, J Bauwelinck, J Van Campenhout, G Roelkens

PMID: 25835841
DOI: 10.1364/OE.23.000815

Abstract

We demonstrate low-voltage germanium waveguide avalanche photodetectors (APDs) with a gain × bandwidth product above 100GHz. A photonic receiver based on such a Ge APD, including a 0.13μm SiGe BiCMOS low-noise trans-impedance amplifier and a limiting amplifier, is realized. A 5.8dB sensitivity improvement is demonstrated at -5.9V bias at an avalanche gain of 6 through bit error ratio measurements. The absolute sensitivity in avalanche mode is -23.4dBm and -24.4dBm at a bit error ratio of 1 × 10(-12) and 1 × 10(-9) respectively.