Photo Detectors

• Optical receivers convert optical signal (light)

to electrical signal (current/voltage)
– Hence referred ‘O/E Converter’
• Photodetector is the fundamental element of
optical receiver, followed by amplifiers and
signal conditioning circuitry
• There are several photodetector types:
– Photodiodes, Phototransistors, Photon multipliers,
Photo-resistors etc.
 Requirements
• Compatible physical dimensions (small size)
• Low sensitivity (high responsivity) at the
desired wavelength and low responsivity
elsewhere → wavelength selectivity
• Low noise and high gain
• Fast response time → high bandwidth
• Insensitive to temperature variations
• Long operating life and low cost
 Photo Diode
• A special type of PN junction
device that generates current
when exposed to light is
known as Photodiode.
• It is also known as
photodetector or photosensor.
• It operates in reverse biased
mode and converts light
energy into electrical energy.
 Principle of Photodiode
• It works on the principle of Photoelectric effect.
• The operating principle of the photodiode is such
that when the junction of this two-terminal
semiconductor device is illuminated then the
electric current starts flowing through it.
• Only minority current flows through the device
when the certain reverse potential is applied to it.
 Constructional detail of a
photodiode:
• The PN junction of the device placed
inside a glass material.
• This is done to order to allow the light
energy to pass through it.
• As only the junction is exposed to
radiation, thus, the other portion of the
glass material is painted black or is
metallized.
• The overall unit is of very small
dimension nearly about 2.5 mm.
• It is noteworthy that the current flowing
through the device is in micro-ampere
and is measured through an ammeter.
 Working of Photodiode
• In the photodiode, a very
small reverse current flows
through the device that is
termed as dark current.
• It is called so because this
current is totally the result
of the flow of minority
carriers and is thus flows
when the device is not
exposed to radiation.
•
• The electrons present in the p side and holes present in n side
are the minority carriers. When a certain reverse-biased
voltage is applied then minority carrier, holes from n-side
experiences repulsive force from the positive potential of the
battery.
• Similarly, the electrons present in the p side experience
repulsion from the negative potential of the battery. Due to
this movement electron and hole recombine at the junction
resultantly generating depletion region at the junction.
• Due to this movement, a very small reverse current flows
through the device known as dark current.
• Now, the junction of the device is illuminated with light. As
the light falls on the surface of the junction, then the
temperature of the junction gets increased. This causes the
electron and hole to get separated from each other.
• At the two gets separated then electrons from n side gets attracted
towards the positive potential of the battery. Similarly, holes
present in the p side get attracted to the negative potential of the
battery.
• This movement then generates high reverse current through the
device.
• With the rise in the light intensity, more charge carriers are
generated and flow through the device. Thereby, producing a large
electric current through the device.
• This current is then used to drive other circuits of the system.
• So, we can say the intensity of light energy is directly proportional
to the current through the device.
• Only positive biased potential can put the device in no current
condition in case of the photodiode.
CHARACTERISTICS OF PHOTODIODE

The figure below shows the VI • Here, the vertical line represents the
characteristic curve of a photodiode: reverse current flowing through the
device and the horizontal line
represents the reverse-biased potential.

• The first curve represents the dark

current that generates due to minority
carriers in the absence of light.

• As we can see in the above figure that

all the curve shows almost equal
spacing in between them. This is so
because current proportionally
increases with the luminous flux.
 Types of Photodiodes
• Positive-Intrinsic-Negative (pin) photodiode
– No internal gain, robust detector
• Avalanche Photo Diode (APD)
– Advanced version with internal gain M due to self
multiplication process
 PIN Diode : CONSTRUCTION

• A PN junction photodiode is made of two layers namely

p-type and n-type semiconductor whereas PIN
photodiode is made of three layers namely p-type, n-
type and intrinsic semiconductor.
• In PIN photodiode, an addition layer called intrinsic
semiconductor is placed between the p-type and n-type
semiconductor to increase the minority carrier current.
 Working
• A PIN photodiode is made of p region and n region
separated by a highly resistive intrinsic layer. The intrinsic
layer is placed between the p region and n region to increase
the width of depletion region.
• The p-type and n-type semiconductors are heavily doped.
Therefore, the p region and n region of the PIN photodiode
has large number of charge carriers to carry electric current.
However, these charge carriers will not carry electric current
under reverse bias condition.
• On the other hand, Intrinsic semiconductors are the pure
form of semiconductors. In intrinsic semiconductor, the
number of free electrons in conduction band is equal to the
number of holes in valance band. Therefore, intrinsic
semiconductor has no charge carriers to conduct electric
current.
• Under reverse bias condition, the majority charge
carriers in n region and p region moves away from the
junction. As a result, the width of depletion region
becomes very wide. Therefore, majority carriers will not
carry electric current under reverse bias condition.
• When light or photon energy is applied to the PIN diode,
most part of the energy is observed by the intrinsic or
depletion region because of the wide depletion width. As
a result, a large number of electron-hole pairs are
generated.
 Continue..........
• Free electrons generated in the intrinsic region move
towards n-side whereas holes generated in the
intrinsic region move towards p-side. The free
electrons and holes moved from one region to
another region carry electric current.
• When free electrons and holes reach n region and p
region, they are attracted to towards the positive and
negative terminals of the battery.
• When forward bias voltage is applied to the PIN
photodiode, it behaves like a resistor.
pin energy-band diagram
 Photocurrent
• As a photon flux Φ penetrates into a semiconductor, it will be absorbed as
it progresses through the material.
• If αs(λ) is the photon absorption coefficient at a wavelength λ, the power
level at a distance x into the material is

• Absorption coefficient  s ( ) strongly depends on wavelength. The upper

wavelength cutoff for any semiconductor can be determined by its energy
gap as follows: 1.24
c ( m) =
E g (eV)
 Responsivity
• Quantum Efficiency: The quantum efficiency η is the number of the
electron–hole carrier pairs generated per incident–absorbed photon of
energy hν and is given by
•
# of electron - hole photogener ated pairs
=
# of incident photons
IP / q
=
P0 / h
Ip is the photocurrent generated by a steady-state optical power Pin incident on
the photodetector.

• Responsivity:

IP q
= = [A/W]
P0 h
Examples of Photon
Absorption
 Avalanche Photodiode (APD)
• APDs internally multiply the primary photocurrent before
it enters to following circuitry.
• In order to carrier multiplication take place, the
photogenerated carriers must traverse along a high field
region.
• In this region, photogenerated electrons and holes gain
enough energy to ionize bound electrons in VB upon
colliding with them. This multiplication is known as
impact ionization.
• The newly created carriers in the presence of high
electric field result in more ionization called avalanche
effect.
Avalanche Photodiode (APD)
APD Vs PIN
 Responsivity ()
Quantum Efficiency () = number of e-h pairs
generated / number of incident photons
Ip / q Ip q
= = = mA/mW
P0 / h P0 h

APD’s have an internal gain M, hence

APD = PIN M where, M = IM/Ip
IM : Mean multiplied current
M = 1 for PIN diodes
Responsivity
 Photodetector Noise
• In fiber optic communication systems, the photodiode is
generally required to detect very weak optical signals.
• Detection of weak optical signals requires that the
photodetector and its amplification circuitry be optimized to
maintain a given signal-to-noise ratio.
• The power signal-to-noise ratio S/N (also designated by SNR)
at the output of an optical receiver is defined by
 Notation: Detector Current
• The direct current value is denoted by, IP
• The time varying (either randomly or periodically) current
with a zero mean is denoted by, ip
• Therefore, the total current Ip is the sum of the DC
component IP and the AC component ip .

I P = I p + ip
T /2
1
= LimT → 
2 2
i p i p (t )dt
T −T / 2
 Quantum (Shot Noise)
Quantum noise arises due optical power fluctuation
because light is made up of discrete number of photons

i2
Q = 2qI p BM F ( M )
2

F(M): APD Noise Figure F(M) ~= Mx (0 ≤ x ≤ 1)

Ip: Mean Detected Current
B = Bandwidth
q: Charge of an electron
 Dark/Leakage Current Noise
There will be some (dark and leakage ) current without any
incident light. This current generates two types of noise

Bulk Dark Current Noise i 2

DB = 2qI D BM F ( M )
2

ID: Dark Current

Surface Leakage i 2
DS = 2qI L B
Current Noise
(not multiplied by M) IL: Leakage Current
 Thermal Noise
The photodetector load resistor RL contributes to
thermal (Johnson) noise current

iT2 = 4 K BTB / RL

KB: Boltzmann’s constant = 1.38054 X 10(-23) J/K

T is the absolute Temperature
• Quantum and Thermal are the significant noise
mechanisms in all optical receivers
• RIN (Relative Intensity Noise) will also appear in
analog links
 Signal to Noise Ratio
Detected current = AC (ip) + DC (Ip)
Signal Power = <ip2>M2
i p2 M 2
SNR =
2q( I p + I D ) M 2 F ( M ) B + 2qI L B + 4k BTB / RL

Typically not all the noise terms will have equal weight.
Often thermal and quantum noise are the most significant.
Noise Calculation Example
 Limiting Cases for SNR
• When the optical signal power is relatively high, then the shot
noise power is much greater than the thermal noise power. In
this case the SNR is called shot-noise or quantum noise
limited.
• When the optical signal power is low, then thermal noise
usually dominates over the shot noise. In this case the SNR is
referred to as being thermal-noise limited.
 Limiting Cases of SNR
In the shot current limited case the SNR is:
i p2
SNR =
2q ( I p ) F ( M ) B

For analog links, there will be RIN (Relative

Intensity Noise) as well
i p2 M 2
SNR =
 2q( I p + I D ) M 2 F ( M ) + 4k BT / RL + ( RIN ) I p2  B
Typical SNR vs. Received Power

• Note, APD
has an
advantage
only at low
received
power levels
 Noise-Equivalent Power
• The sensitivity of a photodetector is describable in terms of the
minimum detectable optical power to have SNR = 1.
• This optical power is the noise equivalent power or NEP.
• Example: Consider the thermal-noise limited case for a pin
photodiode. Then

To find the NEP, set the SNR = 1 and solve for P:

Response Time in pin photodiode

Transit time, td and carrier drift velocity vd are related by

td = w / vd For a high speed Si PD, td = 0.1 ns

 Rise and fall times

Photodiode has uneven rise and fall times depending on:

1. Absorption coefficient s() and
2. Junction Capacitance Cj  A
Cj = o r
w
 Junction Capacitance
Cj =
 o  r A
w
εo = 8.8542 x 10(-12) F/m; free space permittivity
εr = the semiconductor dielectric constant
A = the diffusion layer (photo sensitive) area
w = width of the depletion layer

Large area photo detectors have large junction

capacitance hence small bandwidth (low speed)
→ A concern in free space optical receivers