Large Signal Bias Dependent Modeling of Avalanche Photodiode Based on Pulsed RF Measurement

This work presents a method for large signal characterization of avalanche photodiode (APD) where measurements were carried out using pulsed RF signal at different DC bias points to extract dispersive parameters of the avalanche photodiode. Pulsed optical excitation on the photodiode were synchronized with the pulsed RF signal using a synchronization circuit and in this way characterization of the photodiode was possible up to 1.3 mW of peak optical power whereas using CW measurement, device heating restricts the characterization up to 0.1 mW of optical input power. A comparison was made between the reflection measurements using CW RF excitation and APD model based on pulsed RF signal to establish the present approach for large signal characterization of the photodiode. Index Terms — Pulse measurement, reflection coefficient measurement, scattering parameters, nonlinearities.