High signal-noise ratio avalanche photodiodes with dynamic biasing technology for laser radar applications

In this work, a high signal-noise ratio (SNR) dynamic biasing InGaAs/InAlAs avalanche photodiode (APD) is demonstrated experimentally and first applied in a laser radar system. Combining with the dynamic biasing technology, the APDs are operated in an unexploited voltage range between linear mode and Geiger mode, which, in this work, is defined as a transition zone. Surprisingly, it is found that the excess noise of dynamic biasing APDs decreases with the gain in this transition zone. As expected, the maximum useful gain is as high as 620 in the dynamic biasing mode, which shows a greater promotion than that of the DC biasing mode (17.5). Compared with the traditional DC biasing mode, the optimal SNR for dynamic biasing mode is improved by 14 dB without the degradation of response time as the peak optical power is 525 nW. Moreover, when SNR = 10, the peak optical power for the dynamic biasing mode is 43.4 nW, which shows a 57.5-fold (17.6 dB) reduction in comparison with the DC biasing mode (2495 nW). Therefore, we believe this new optical receiver will pave a new way in high-sensitivity and high-speed light detection.