APD and SPAD Receivers : Invited Paper

Integrated receivers with avalanche photodiodes (APDs) and single-photon avalanche diodes (SPADs) fabricated in 0.35μm CMOS and BiCMOS technologies are introduced. The APD receivers were used in error-free optical wireless communication (OWC) experiments with maximum transmission distances from 11m to 27m at 1Gb/s and from 6.5m to 16.5m at 2Gb/s without receiver lense and without optical filter. The APD receivers work up to and exceeding 2000lx ambient light. The newest trend are SPAD-based receivers, which reduce the gap to the quantum limit. The state of the art of SPAD receivers will be summarized and reviewed also in comparison to APD receivers.