Discovery Semiconductors HLPD® Technology Enables Lowest Phase Noise Optoelectronic Clocks


Ewing, NJ - Discovery's Highly Linear Photodiode (HLPD®) technology leads the industry with record phase linearity of less than 5 rad/W. Further reduction in nonlinear distortions can be achieved through optimization of the photodiode's bias, as allowed by the HLPD® Lab Buddy instrument. Such linearity can be leveraged to minimize the phase noise and timing jitter in optoelectronic systems as verified by the work done at l'Observatoire de Paris.

"We recently used the HLPD® Lab Buddy to generate, with femtosecond laser photonic source, 12 GHz microwave signals with a relative phase noise floor of about -155 dBc/Hz. This is thanks to the low shot-noise limit which arises from its high saturation power. This is the lowest noise level demonstrated so far with such a source," commented scientists at LNE-SYRTE (Paris Observatory, France). "This will prove useful for realizing, microwave sources with ultra-low phase noise for radar, very long baseline interferometry, or remote synchronization of large facilities."
"Low phase noise clocks are also an enabling technology for ultra-fast analog-to-digital converters, whose bandwidth and dynamic range have been historically limited by the synchronization issues arising from timing jitter," added Dr. Shubo Datta, Photonics Engineer at Discovery Semiconductors.

Dr. Datta continued, "Several other applications of this instrument involve generating signals for high duty cycle with the resulting power dissipation in the photodiode approaching 0.5 Watt. Consequently, the HLPD® Lab Buddy also allows controlling the temperature of the photodiode for the reliable performance in the entire range of its bias. The programmable bias and temperature control features of this instrument are designed to ease its integration into a myriad of laboratory applications, including testing the nonlinear distortions imparted by modulators and optical fibers."

Discovery Semiconductors is an industry leader in manufacturing ultrafast, high optical power handling InGaAs photodiodes, radio frequency over fiber optical receivers, balanced optical receivers and several other custom products for applications ranging from analog RF links to ultrafast digital communications. Discovery's subsystems include Kitty Hawk, an ultra-fast Optical Coherent System.

For additional information, including complete product specifications, operational capabilities and pricing, or to discuss your application in detail, please call Discovery at: (609) 434-1311 or fax: (609) 434-1317.

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