A high-sensitivity APD receiver for 10-Gb/s system applications

In this paper, we will report the performance of a high-sensitivity (-28.7 dB) avalanche photodiode (APD) receiver, constructed with a low-noise superlattice APD, for l0-Gb/s applications. This receiver sensitivity value is only about 4-5 dB away from that of a commercially realizable optical pre-amplifier receiver at this bit-rate. Using this receiver and a transmitter with an output optical power of only -4 dB, we are able to transmit data over 61 km of standard fiber, including system operational margins, without using any optical amplifiers.