Abstract

The last several years has seen increased research and development in bringing the enormous information bandwidth to homes through the medium of the glass fiber and using optical communication techniques. World-wide research on semiconductor devices for fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) and fiber-in-the-loop (FITL) applications has concentrated on realizing components for this large market which have special attributes as compared to other application areas. The devices need to be low cost, highly reliable, in large volume, and have good performance. Cost of manufacturing a semiconductor device is related to the complexity of fabrication, the number of epitaxial growths needed and to the overall yield of the process technology. Packaging also adds to cost, particularly when there are optical interfaces. In an effort to drive down costs, one must not sacrifice performance. Several research laboratories around the world are actively investigating these issues for different semiconductor photonic and electronic devices that are envisioned to form the backbone of FTTH systems. In this talk, we shall examine the photoreceiver in particular, consisting of a photodetector followed by a preamplifier, and consider issues related to its role in FTTH/FITL systems.

© 1996 Optical Society of America