High performance monolithically integrated SOA-UTC photoreceiver for 100Gbit/s applications

In this paper we present a high-speed photo-detector comprising a uni-traveling carrier photo-diode (UTC PD) monolithically integrated with a semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA) for 100Gbit/s applications. This new pre-amplified photoreceiver design operates at 1.55μm wavelength with the UTC PD exceeding 110GHz 3dB bandwidth at high input powers and a dark current of 1 nA. A 40% bandwidth improvement is achieved by employing new optimized transmission lines (TMLs) to equalize the intrinsic response of the detector. The high performance buried heterostructure SOA exhibits low polarization dependence loss (50AIW. The bias dependence of the gain and the carrier recombination was analyzed using differential carrier lifetime measurements.