Monolithic array photoreceivers for multichannel WDM application

Abstract

The late 1990s have seen the rapid progress of optical communication systems employing wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) architectures in order to exploit the enormous bandwidth offered by the optical fiber. There has been concurrent activities in the photonic component arena to find viable solutions for realizing such WDM architectures requiring multichannel transmitters and receivers. One such area where research has been focused is in array technologies. Monolithic integration has progressed sufficiently that arrays of lasers and photodetectors are being envisioned as key device components which enable novel architectures. In particular, optoelectronic integrated circuit (OEIC) photoreceiver arrays have been actively researched worldwide for such applications. Arrays of p-i-n photodetectors have been monolithically integrated with a variety of field effect transistors (FETs) and heterojunction bipolar transistors (HBTs).