Abstract

We introduce a new technique for characterizing nonlinear behavior in photodiodes and illustrate its use for second order intermodulation distortion (IMD). For a given operating point (bias voltage and dc current), we construct a frequency-dependent nonlinear coefficient and plot it versus the output frequency of the IMD product. We find that for large ranges of operating points, the nonlinear coefficient falls on the same single curve, regardless of whether it was a sum, high difference, or low difference frequency plan that created the tone. Additionally, we found evidence of scaling: Regions in which changes in the universal curve due to a change in bias voltage can be cancelled by a systematic change in the dc current. That is, the nonlinear coefficients for a family of bias/current pairs fall on the same curve in these regions. This method shows that standard characterization of nonlinearities, such as finding intercept points, can be efficiently organized. Furthermore, it implies that comparison of nonlinear behavior of different photodiodes can be made directly on a uniform basis.

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Three laser two-tone setup for measurement of photodiode intercept points

Meredith N. Draa, Jian Ren, David C. Scott, William S.C. Chang, and Paul K.L. Yu
Opt. Express 16(16) 12108-12113 (2008)

Analysis of magnitude and relative phase of photodiode IMD2 using amplitude matched MZM-distortion cancellation technique

Meredith N. Hutchinson, Sharon R. Harmon, Vincent J. Urick, and Keith J. Williams
Opt. Express 22(1) 962-971 (2014)

Comparison of photodiode nonlinearity measurement systems

Meredith N. Draa, Alexander S. Hastings, and Keith J. Williams
Opt. Express 19(13) 12635-12645 (2011)

Frequency dependent harmonic powers in a modified uni-traveling carrier photodetector

Yue Hu, Curtis R. Menyuk, Meredith N. Hutchinson, Vincent J. Urick, and Keith J. Williams
Opt. Lett. 42(5) 919-922 (2017)

Measurement of intermodulation distortion in high-linearity photodiodes

Anand Ramaswamy, Nobuhiro Nunoya, Keith J. Williams, Jonathan Klamkin, Molly Piels, Leif A. Johansson, A. Hastings, Larry A. Coldren, and John E. Bowers
Opt. Express 18(3) 2317-2324 (2010)