High power UTC photodiodes design and application for analog fiber optic links

We report on the design and characterization of uni-traveling-carrier photodiodes (UTC-PDs) achieving simultaneously high speed (ges 20 GHz), high responsivity (0.83 A/W), and high saturation current (ges 80 mA). These performances yield attractiveness of the designed PDs for use in analog fiber optic links. Indeed, high power operation enhances both the RF link gain and dynamic range. This was experimentally confirmed by demonstrating a L-band direct modulation analog fiber optic link using the developed UTC-PDs. The demonstrated link exhibits an intrinsic gain close to -1 dB, and a compression to noise ratio as high as 162 dB.Hz at 10 mA of detected photocurrent.