Research On The Measurement And Application Of Avalanche Photodiodes Noise

Because of its high quantum efficiency, low power consumption, high sensitivity, wide working frequency spectrum and small volume, avalanche photodiodes has become an ideal choice of optical receivers and play a decisive role in optical communications. The noise in output signal, voltage or current, strongly affects the detectivity and sensitivity of the avalanche photodiode. Therefore, reducing noise can improve the performance of the avalanche photodiode. In order to reduce the noise, it is necessary to test and analysis the noise level of avalanche photodiodes, and this can also help evaluate its quality and reliability. So the investigation on the noise of avalanche photodiodes is of great value. Now, the research on the noise of avalanche photodiodes is still in initial stage, while the test method is more backward, and the purpose of test and study is simply to optimize the structure of the devices, the research on the noise is far from enough. In order to study the APD’s noise deeply, especially its low frequency noise, the noise testing system for APD is established. Then a method of reliability characterization of APD using low frequency noise is proposed based on actual testing and analysis of the noise of APD, and in the actual test and analysis foundation, proposed avalanche photodiodes reliability of low-frequency noise characterization method. Moreover, give a low-frequency noise characterized way of the APD reliability on the basis of the actual measurement and analysis of APD’s noise.With current state of testing techniques for APD’s noise reviewed and noise characteristics of APD analysed, this article presents the shortage of the previous noise measurement and proposes a new solution to APD’s noise measurement taking into account the equipments available in the laboratory. The new technology solves the problems of narrowness of frequency band of the noise spectral and insufficiency of collected information. According to the test solution, the noise measurement system for APD is designed which contains hardware part and software part and the specific test procedure is given. The relationship between the noise and the reverse bias voltage is obtained. The parameters before and after aging test are presented, which verify the feasibility of noise parameter to characterize APD’s reliability.