Abstract

We present a balanced waveguide integrated avalanche photodiode (APD) for high-speed applications. Due to its high bandwidth up to 27 GHz (Fig. 1 a) and a responsivity of 0.6 A/W, this chip fulfils all requirements for coherent detection at symbol rates for 32 GBaud and beyond. Further, the internal gain and thus the high sensitivity of up to 9.6 A/W (Fig. 1) enable the detection of optical signals with low input power. This rises the idea for a homodyne detection scheme for differential QAM formats for avoiding the use of a local oscillator and therefore reducing the overall power consumption (Fig. 1).

© 2019 IEEE