Fabrication and Characterization of a Long Wavelength InP HBT-Based Optical Receiver

Development of a high speed photodetector - the InP-based phototransistor (HPT) for use in optical receivers for microwave signal distribution for satellite phased array antennas is addressed. Currently, p-i-n photodetectors are used because of their compatibility with the heterojunction bipolar transistor (HBT), but their performance limits the bandwidth of these optical receivers. The HPT photodetector was investigated here as an alternative photodetector for monolithic integration with heterojunction bipolar transistor amplifiers in long wavelength (1.3 micron), gigahertz (GHz) frequency optical receivers.