High sensitivity of VPE-grown InGaAs/InP-heterostructure APD with buffer layer and guard-ring structure

A planar-type InGaAs/InP-heterostructure APD with an InGaAsP buffer layer was made by using a VPE technique. To avoid the edge breakdown, a guard-ring structure was employed. The average received optical power for a 10−9 error rate at 280 Mbit/s was as low as −43 dBm, which corresponded to 2 and 7 dB improvements over a Ge-APD at 1.52 and 1.59 μm, respectively.