High Speed Double Balanced Photodetectors for Lasercom

For many communication applications the demand for more bandwidth is a never ending problem. Military system applications often can exceed commercial demands by an order of magnitude or more as SIGINT and IMINT data collection and transmission are keys to our National Security. Lasercom systems provide an excellent method for secure, long range communication, and maximizing the distance and bandwidth of these systems is an important goal to provide the communication backbone for many military needs. Communication systems using optical signals are a common approach for both military and commercial applications and advancements made for one application form the foundation for advancements in another application. Archcom's proposal is to extend our world's best commercially available 40 Gbps single ended optical receiver to a balanced configuration. Archcom's current single ended receiver offers 0.9 A/W responsivity, 50 GHz of bandwidth, 500 V/W conversion gain and 3 dB better noise performance over any other available 40 Gbps receiver. This will provide the foundation for Archcom to quickly and effectively provide a wideband dual detector optical receiver targeting Lasercom system performance requirements.