Abstract

We report the development of ultrasensitive photoreceivers, based on ultra high gain and low excess noise APDs, with sensitivities of –35.5 dBm at 2.488 Gbps and 10⁻¹⁰ BER and the potential for 6-12 dB sensitivity enhancement at higher bit rates. Current APD devices are not capable of simultaneous high gain and low noise. The developed APD detectors enable the achievement of optimum sensitivity at an order of magnitude higher gain than state-of-the-art detectors. The resulting APD receivers have been produced as ROSAs, fiber-coupled pigtail devices and ITU grid spaced linear arrays.

© 2009 Optical Society of America