TY - GEN
T1 - Ultra-low noise, large-area InGaAs Quad photoreceiver with low crosstalk for laser interferometry space antenna
AU - Joshi, Abhay
AU - Datta, Shubhashish
AU - Rue, Jim
AU - Livas, Jeffrey
AU - Silverberg, Robert
AU - Guzman Cervantes, Felipe
PY - 2012/12/1
Y1 - 2012/12/1
N2 - Quad photoreceivers, namely a 2 × 2 array of p-i-n photodiodes followed by a transimpedance amplifier (TIA) per diode, are required as the front-end photonic sensors in several applications relying on free-space propagation with position and direction sensing capability, such as long baseline interferometry, free-space optical communication, and biomedical imaging. It is desirable to increase the active area of quad photoreceivers (and photodiodes) to enhance the link gain, and therefore sensitivity, of the system. However, the resulting increase in the photodiode capacitance reduces the photoreceiver's bandwidth and adds to the excess system noise. As a result, the noise performance of the front-end quad photoreceiver has a direct impact on the sensitivity of the overall system. One such particularly challenging application is the space-based detection of gravitational waves by measuring distance at 1064 nm wavelength with ∼ 10 pm/√Hz accuracy over a baseline of millions of kilometers. We present a 1 mm diameter quad photoreceiver having an equivalent input current noise density of < 1.7 pA/√Hz per quadrant in 2 MHz to 20 MHz frequency range. This performance is primarily enabled by a rad-hard-by-design dualdepletion region InGaAs quad photodiode having 2.5 pF capacitance per quadrant. Moreover, the quad photoreceiver demonstrates a crosstalk of < -45 dB between the neighboring quadrants, which ensures an uncorrected direction sensing resolution of < 50 nrad. The sources of this primarily capacitive crosstalk are presented.
AB - Quad photoreceivers, namely a 2 × 2 array of p-i-n photodiodes followed by a transimpedance amplifier (TIA) per diode, are required as the front-end photonic sensors in several applications relying on free-space propagation with position and direction sensing capability, such as long baseline interferometry, free-space optical communication, and biomedical imaging. It is desirable to increase the active area of quad photoreceivers (and photodiodes) to enhance the link gain, and therefore sensitivity, of the system. However, the resulting increase in the photodiode capacitance reduces the photoreceiver's bandwidth and adds to the excess system noise. As a result, the noise performance of the front-end quad photoreceiver has a direct impact on the sensitivity of the overall system. One such particularly challenging application is the space-based detection of gravitational waves by measuring distance at 1064 nm wavelength with ∼ 10 pm/√Hz accuracy over a baseline of millions of kilometers. We present a 1 mm diameter quad photoreceiver having an equivalent input current noise density of < 1.7 pA/√Hz per quadrant in 2 MHz to 20 MHz frequency range. This performance is primarily enabled by a rad-hard-by-design dualdepletion region InGaAs quad photodiode having 2.5 pF capacitance per quadrant. Moreover, the quad photoreceiver demonstrates a crosstalk of < -45 dB between the neighboring quadrants, which ensures an uncorrected direction sensing resolution of < 50 nrad. The sources of this primarily capacitive crosstalk are presented.
KW - InGaAs photodiodes
KW - Large area photodetector
KW - Quadrant photodetector
KW - Very long baseline interferometer
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U2 - 10.1117/12.918285
DO - 10.1117/12.918285
M3 - Conference contribution
AN - SCOPUS:84873373548
SN - 9780819491541
T3 - Proceedings of SPIE - The International Society for Optical Engineering
BT - High Energy, Optical, and Infrared Detectors for Astronomy V
T2 - High Energy, Optical, and Infrared Detectors for Astronomy V
Y2 - 1 July 2012 through 4 July 2012
ER -