UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA

Santa Barbara
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering

Problem Set No. 8 Issued: May 27, 2011

Spring 2011 Due:June 3, 2011 12:00 PM

ECE 135

Final Exam: The final exam for this class is on June 8, 2011 between 12 - 3 PM. All the
material covered in the class and homework assignments will be included in the final. It is a
closed book exam. You are allowed to bring two 8.5" x 11" sheets of notes. Please bring a blue
book to write your answers on.

1. An avalanche photodiode like the one shown in the figure below is made with the following
doping concentrations: in the n+ and p+ regions 1018 cm-3; in the p-layer, 4 x 1015 cm-3; in the
epitaxial layer, 1014 cm-3. The thickness of the p-layer is 2 m and that of the -layer is 20 m.
The diameter of the fully depleted region is limited by the channel stop diffusion to 200 m. The
recombination lifetime is 10 sec throughout the active region. Assume uniform doping and
abrupt junctions, and take r = 12.

n guard ring
n+ layer

p+ layer
p+ layer
p layer
layer
Ohmic contacts

p+ substrate

(a) Sketch the variation of the electric field across the device, indicating the values of dE/dx in each
part.

(b) Calculate the voltage required to deplete the whole -layer and the peak value of the electric field
when this is just achieved.

(c) Calculate the bias voltage and the electric field at the p+ and p junctions when the peak field is
30kV/mm.

(d) Discuss the expected variation of the dark current with the reverse bias voltage.
(e) Calculate the response time and bandwidth when M = 100. Assume the carriers drift with
saturated carrier velocities in Si and take wA = 1 m, k = 0.1.
2.
(a) A 1.3 m digital receiver is operating at 1 Gb/sec and has an effective noise bandwidth of 60
MHz. The p-i-n photodiode has negligible dark current and 90% quantum efficiency. The load
resistance is 100 and the amplifier noise figure is 3 dB. Calculate the receiver sensitivity
corresponding to a BER of 10-9. How much does it change if the receiver is designed to operate
reliably up to a BER of 10-12?

(b) Calculate the receiver sensitivity at the BER of 10-9 for this receiver in the shot noise and thermal
noise limits. How many photons are incident during bit 1 in the two limits if the optical pulse can
be approximated by a square pulse?

3.
(a) Consider a 0.8 m receiver with a silicon p-i-n photodiode. Assume 20 MHz bandwidth, 65%
quantum efficiency, 1 nA dark current, 8 pF junction capacitance and a 3 dB amplifier noise
figure. The receiver is illuminated with 5 mW of optical power. Calculate the rms noise currents
due to shot noise, thermal noise and amplifier noise.

(b) Determine the signal to noise ratio.

(c) This receiver is used in a digital communication system that requires a SNR of at least 20 dB for
satisfactory performance. What is the minimum received power when the detection is limited by
the shot noise and the thermal noise?

4. Derive an expression for the laser intensity noise induced power penalty of a p-i-n receiver
receiver taking into account a finite extinction ratio. Both shot and intensity noise contributions
can be neglected compared to thermal noise in the off state but not in the on state. Remember
that the intensity noise parameter is defined as

1/ 2
Pin2
rI
Pin

When does the power penalty become infinite? Explain the meaning of infinite power penalty.