High Power, Highly Linear Photodiode Arrays with Integrated RF Power Combiner for 2 - 20 GHz Applications

We propose to develop high-power, highly linear photodiodes having the following specifications at 1550 nm wavelength per photodiode: (1) 3 dB bandwidth > 20 GHz, (2) DC photocurrent > 200 mA, (3) maximum RF output power > 1 W, (4) two-tone OIP3 > 55 dBm, and (5) power-to-phase conversion factor < 3 rad/W. In conjunction with the significant advances in the state-of-the-art in individual photodiode performance, as mentioned above, we will demonstrate further ~ 6 dB enhancement in maximum RF output power and OIP3 by combining the RF outputs of an array of the proposed photodiodes with a RF Wilkinson combiner.