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H. Zimmermann, B. Steindl, M. Hofbauer, R. Enne:
"Integrated fiber optical receiver reducing the gap to the quantum limit";
Scientific Reports, Vol. 7 (2017), Article No. 2652 (2017); 1 - 12.

Experimental results of a single-photon avalanche diode (SPAD) based optical fiber receiver integrated in 0.35 µm PIN-photodiode CMOS technology are presented. To cope with the parasitic effects of SPADs an array of four receivers is implemented. The SPADs consist of a multiplication zone and a separate thick absorption zone to achieve a high photon detection probability (PDP). In addition cascoded quenchers allow to use a quenching voltage of twice the usual supply voltage, i.e. 6.6V instead of 3.3V, in order to increase the PDP further. Measurements result in sensitivities of -55.7 dBm at a data rate of 50 Mbit/s and -51.6 dBm at 100 Mbit/s for a wavelength of 635 nm and a bit-error ratio of 2 x 10^-3, which is sufficient to perform error correction. These sensitivities are better than those of linear-mode APD recievers integrated in the same CMOS technology. These results are a major advance towards direct detection optical receivers working close to the quantum limit.

http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-017-02870-2