References for high-speed (>GHz) testing of photodetectors
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Posted by Bob Pownall on April 20, 2007, 7:02 pm
Please log in for more thread options sending it, and I'm not sure it went out.) I need to do some high-speed (>GHz) testing of some visible-light
photodetectors, including building the test setup.
Can anybody give me some pointers to papers, book chapters, application notes, whatever... I've tried doing some literature searches, but everything I've found so far has consisted of a paragraph or two in a paper somebody's written about their new high-speed photodetector design. I'm hoping for something a little more specific than that. Bob Pownall | ||||||||||||||||
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Posted by Paul Mathews on April 21, 2007, 10:22 am
Please log in for more thread options > (My apologies if this shows up twice. My system glitched as I was
> sending it, and I'm not sure it went out.) > > I need to do some high-speed (>GHz) testing of some visible-light > photodetectors, including building the test setup. > > Can anybody give me some pointers to papers, book chapters, application > notes, whatever... > > I've tried doing some literature searches, but everything I've found so > far has consisted of a paragraph or two in a paper somebody's written > about their new high-speed photodetector design. I'm hoping for > something a little more specific than that. > > Bob Pownall Building Electro-Optical Systems, Philip C.C. Hobbs, ISBN0-471-24681-6 | ||||||||||||||||
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Posted by AES on April 21, 2007, 3:00 pm
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> > (My apologies if this shows up twice. My system glitched as I was
> > sending it, and I'm not sure it went out.) > > > > I need to do some high-speed (>GHz) testing of some visible-light > > photodetectors, including building the test setup. > > > > Can anybody give me some pointers to papers, book chapters, application > > notes, whatever... > > > > I've tried doing some literature searches, but everything I've found so > > far has consisted of a paragraph or two in a paper somebody's written > > about their new high-speed photodetector design. I'm hoping for > > something a little more specific than that. > > > > Bob Pownall >
> Building Electro-Optical Systems, Philip C.C. Hobbs, ISBN0-471-24681-6 I don't recall if Phil includes this or not, but there was a very clever technique employed to test the high-frequency/fast time response of photodetectors in early days of lasers, when fast light modulators, scopes, and related instrumentation were not yet available. Incoherent light from an incoherent source (i.e., a thermal source or discharge lamp) can equally well be described as a monochromatic light signal randomly modulated by random phase and amplitude modulation components at frequencies extending up to the bandwidth of the spectral distribution of the light, right? Even a very narrow bandwidth incoherent light beam -- unless it's *really* narrow -- thus contains a continuous distribution of noise AM and FM components extending up to well beyond the GHz regime. Shine a light source like this onto your photodetector; feed the photodetector output into an rf spectrum analyzer (and those were generally available at the time); look at how the output from the spectrum analyzer (integrated over some suitable integration time) falls off at higher frequencies; and you've got the amplitude response you want. Chopping the light source at some frequency down in the audio range and using a phase sensitive detector/integrator on the spectrum analyser output lets you subtract out the shot noise component of the dark current in the photodetector or the noise background in any subsequent amplifier. Doing a reasonably accurate calibration of the passband and sensitivity of the spectrum analyzer using coherent rf sources lets you make quantitative measurements of the photodetector response. Can't cite a reference off hand, but I seem to recall Peter W. Smith being one of the people who published on this, some time in the 1960s or 1970s. | ||||||||||||||||
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Posted by Bob Pownall on April 21, 2007, 5:07 pm
Please log in for more thread options My thanks for the responses so far! All my previous testing experience,
both in semiconductors and in optics, has been at DC, so I don't even know what questions to ask. Paul Mathews wrote: <Summary: A book recommendation>
Thanks! Am I correct in assuming that's the Phil Hobbs who posts here occasionally? My library has a copy of the book (Yay!), but it's listed as "Missing". (Bummer.) I'm going to see if I can find/borrow a copy from one of the other people in the lab. If not, I'll probably buy my own copy. (I found a copy on the 'net for ~$117, including shipping.) AES wrote: <Summary: Description of novel technique using incoherent light to measure frequency response.>
Prof. Siegman - thanks for the pointer. I'll follow up on the reference, to see if it's a technique I can use in my application. (BTW, I've got your book! I keep hoping I'll run into you sometime - maybe I can get it autographed!) Bob Pownall | ||||||||||||||||
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Posted by John Devereux on April 21, 2007, 5:32 pm
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>
>> > (My apologies if this shows up twice. My system glitched as I was
>> > sending it, and I'm not sure it went out.) >> > >> > I need to do some high-speed (>GHz) testing of some visible-light >> > photodetectors, including building the test setup. >> > >> > Can anybody give me some pointers to papers, book chapters, application >> > notes, whatever... >> > >> > I've tried doing some literature searches, but everything I've found so >> > far has consisted of a paragraph or two in a paper somebody's written >> > about their new high-speed photodetector design. I'm hoping for >> > something a little more specific than that. >> > >> > Bob Pownall >>
>> Building Electro-Optical Systems, Philip C.C. Hobbs, ISBN0-471-24681-6 >
> I don't recall if Phil includes this or not, but there was a very clever > technique employed to test the high-frequency/fast time response of > photodetectors in early days of lasers, when fast light modulators, > scopes, and related instrumentation were not yet available. > > Incoherent light from an incoherent source (i.e., a thermal source or > discharge lamp) can equally well be described as a monochromatic light > signal randomly modulated by random phase and amplitude modulation > components at frequencies extending up to the bandwidth of the spectral > distribution of the light, right? > > Even a very narrow bandwidth incoherent light beam -- unless it's > *really* narrow -- thus contains a continuous distribution of noise AM > and FM components extending up to well beyond the GHz regime. > > Shine a light source like this onto your photodetector; feed the > photodetector output into an rf spectrum analyzer (and those were > generally available at the time); look at how the output from the > spectrum analyzer (integrated over some suitable integration time) falls > off at higher frequencies; and you've got the amplitude response you > want. So, basically, the apparent spectrum of the shot noise is the frequency response of the receiver? Pretty simple! -- John Devereux | ||||||||||||||||
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