Description

Objective: The objective of the activity is to demonstrate novel III-V avalanche photodiodes (APD) for use at 1550 nm wavelength with significant performance improvements over available InGaAs APD devices. Targeted Improvements:Up to 5 times improvement in detector sensitivity, lower dark current and higher gain-bandwidth product compared to currently available InGaAs APDs. Description: While very good InGaAs APDs are commercially available, their performance is typically limited by the similar hole/electron ionisation coefficients of the avalanche region. Recent developments with novel III-V material systems (e.g., AlGaAsSb) have demonstrated several factors improved NEP with similar dark current showing that multiplication regions with dissimilar ionisation coefficients can offer significant performance improvements in many low and single photon applications at 1550 nm. This aim of this activity is to design, manufacture and characterise packaged APD detectors (including transimpedance amplifier) of different sizes and to perform radiation testing. Devices up to 1 GHz bandwidth shall be developed maximising the detection area. Devices for 200 MHz, 500 MHz and 1GHz shall be developed. Procurement Policy: C(1) = Activity restricted to non-prime contractors (incl. SMEs). For additional informationplease go to:http://www.esa.int/About_Us/Business_with_ESA/Small_and_Medium_Sized_En…