Wideband Transimpedance Amplifiers For Optoelectronics: Applications To Dynamic Interferometry
Wideband Transimpedance Amplifiers For Optoelectronics: Applications To Dynamic Interferometry
Wideband Transimpedance Amplifiers For Optoelectronics: Applications To Dynamic Interferometry
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Patricio Sorichetti
University of Buenos Aires
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Abstract—This paper describes the design and performance interest is encoded on θ(~r, t). Thus, we need to detect and
of transimpedance amplifiers (TIAs) for optoelectronic process I(~r, t) without any kind of distortion.
systems, optimized for optical dynamic interferometry. In An interferometry system can be divided in three func-
order to perform the analysis of the amplifiers, we show some
experimental schemes, where different topologies were used. tional blocks. The first block is the experimental scheme
We describe the relevance of each TIA implemented and the on which the device under test (DUT) is placed and the
corresponding guidelines and design considerations. interfering beams are generated and combined. The second
block is the detection block whose front-end can be either
Resumen— Este artı́culo describe el diseño y desempeño a camera or single photodetectors, or both. The third block
de amplificadores de transimpedancia (TIAs) para
optoelectrónica, optimizados para su uso en aplicaciones is the processing block that is used to extract the required
de interferometrı́a óptica dinámica. Para desarrollar el information.
análisis de los amplificadores, mostramos algunos esquemas Due to the limited capturing rate of the camera, initially
experimentales donde se utilizan distintas topologı́as. En cada camera-based interferometers were mainly used for quasi
esquema desarrollado, describiremos la relevancia de cada static measurements. For high-frequency vibration measure-
TIA, mencionando lineamientos y consideraciones de diseño.
ment, there are various techniques that allow steady-state
I. I NTRODUCTION : D ETECTION OF OPTICAL surface vibration mode measurements, but these can only
INTERFEROMETRIC SIGNALS be applied in principle on periodical disturbances [10].
In optical sensing systems, the current generated from Non periodical measurements can be made by high speed
photodetectors is generally small. Moreover, most of the cameras, having frame rates in excess of 250 frames per
subsequent processing occurs in the voltage domain. Thus, a second. However, they can be very expensive in comparison
conversion from current to voltage is required. A current to to high speed single photodetectors. Moreover, they may not
voltage converter is also called a transimpedance amplifier be capable of working with low intensity signals. In addition,
(TIA). TIAs are commonly used in many applications that if low-speed CCDs are used, the time for acquiring the inter-
require high dynamic range, speed and sensivity, such as ferograms may be quite long and this makes the technique
optical communications and optical metrology systems [1]. poorly suited to be used in an industrial environment [11].
It is known that optical interferometric methods allow In this work, we are interested in the detection of time
the measurement of sub-nanometer dynamic displacements varying interferometric signals. For this purpose we use
[2], [3]. These techniques have been applied to a variety photodiodes as photodetectors. A photodiode converts the
of determinations [4], [5] and are particularly interesting in photon energy of light into an electrical signal by releas-
the case of electromechanical properties of materials [6], ing and accelerating current-conducting carriers within the
single nanoparticle detection in fluids [7] or observation of semiconductor. In this case, the diode junction is customized
gravitational waves [8]. Since the light used for sensing improving their spectral response and efficiency as in PIN
usually does not alter the sample under study, optical in- and avalanche alternatives Also, multiple-element and lateral
terferometric techniques also present significant advantages photodiodes provide position-sensing through the relative
for non-destructive testing (NDT) [9]. magnitudes of multiple output currents. By itself, a photo-
A general expression of a two-beam interferometric signal diode can produce a voltage output as required for most
is shown on (14): electronic instrumentation. However, this operating mode
(photovoltaic mode) produces a highly nonlinear response
I(~r, t) = A(~r, t) + B(~r, t) cos θ(~r, t) (1) and a very restricted bandwidth. Instead, accepting the diode
output as a current (photoconductive mode) and performing
where A(~r, t) is the background intensity, B(~r, t) is the a current-to-voltage conversion dramatically improves its
fringe contrast and θ(~r, t) is the phase difference between performance [1].
the interfering waves. These parameters can be both space In the following sections, we present three different inter-
(~r) and time (t) dependent. Usually, the information of ferometric schemes, each of them using a specific detection
ISSN 2525-0159 16
Revista elektron, Vol. 1, No. 1, pp. 16-22 (2017)
setup. The first setup is the simplest form of current to The active surface area of the photodiodes plays a key role
voltage conversion. We take advantage of its simplicity to on the performance of the detector. If it is very small, the
study the detection process of photodiodes and also to define effect of speckle in the interferogram will decrease the signal
our design considerations in optoelectronic measurements. to noise ratio (SNR) of the detected signal. If the area
In the second setup we present a photodiode transimpedance of the photodiode is too large, the SNR will also decay
amplifier. We describe the critical parameters involved in the because we lose spatial resolution [13]. Since the position
design of a transimpedance amplifier destined to measure of the photodiodes can be adjusted, we can use large area
interferometric signals with low modulation depth. The last detectors in order to measure the intensity signals (Fig. 1)
setup is a wideband photodiode transimpedance amplifier without saturation and loss of spatial resolution in expense
which can detect high speed optical signals. Finally, the of signal strength. Therefore, the current to voltage converter
results of this work are discussed. needs to be sensitive to the intensity variations produced by
∆φv−h (t) under low spatial modulation depth.
II. F IRST APPROACH : DETECTION OF LOW SPEED
PHENOMENA A. Characteristics of the current to voltage converter
Consider the birefringent phase demodulator shown in As we can see in (3), to effectively retrieve ∆φv−h (t),
Fig.1, detailed in [12]. the current to voltage conversion needs to be linear. The
photodiode response is linear when we sample the pho-
(A) Phase demodulator
tocurrent under the conditions VBIAS ≥ 0 and VBIAS >
Polarization modulated light VOU T = IT R (Fig.1 (B)). The total current provided by
Phase modulator (DUT) the photodiode is IT = IP H + IDark , where IP H is the
Ω
PC
photocurrent and IDark is the dark current. The dark current
He-Ne laser DAQ
is the current that will flow through the photodiode under no-
Grounded interface Photodiodes light conditions and it increases with VBIAS . The bandwidth
Quartz crystal (ϴ = 45º) (BW ) of the system is determined by the sample resistor
Polarizer
R and the junction capacitance of the photodiode CP H ,
Interference plane
which decreases with VBIAS : BW = 1/(2πRCP H ). The
(B) Photodiode
Interference plane
VBIAS noise sources are mainly: shot noise in the photodiodes,
IT thermal noise in the sample resistor R, and external coupled
y To DAQ
VOUT interfering signals. A complete study of different noise
R
z
contributions on the current to voltage converter is detailed
in [14].
Fig. 1. Birefringent phase demodulator. (A) An array of photodiodes
In our experimental setup we used four photodiodes
is placed in the interference plane. The photocurrent IT is converted to Vishay BPW43 [15] reverse biased at 9 V with a battery,
a voltage signal (VOU T ) by a resistor R and then sampled by a data each with a sample resistor R = 1 MΩ. The measured SNR
acquisition system (DAQ) and processed by a computer (PC) [13]. (B)
Distribution of the photodiodes and connection scheme.
is approximately 80 dB on a 10 kHz bandwidth. A picture
of the detector is shown on Fig.2.
A spatiotemporal interferogram is produced by the system
itself and detected by an array of photodiodes. Each photo-
diode is placed in a position r~i = (yi , zi ) where the intensity
is
I(~
ri , t) = A(~
ri ) + B(~
ri ) cos [∆φo−e (~
ri ) + ∆φv−h (t)] (2)
Here ∆φo−e (~ri ) is a fixed spatial phase and ∆φv−h (t) is
the phase produced by the device under test. This phase can
be recovered by applying
"P #
N ˜ ri , t)
i=1 ni I(~
∆φv−h (t) = arctan PN
b (3)
˜ ri , t)
i=1 di I(~
where ∆φb v−h (t) is the estimated phase and N is the total
number of photodetectors. Each intensity is converted into a
photocurrent and then converted again into a voltage signal Fig. 2. Detector implemented. The photodiodes are placed into a metal
by a resistor R. Both weighted summations of photodiode box to prevent external noise sources from entering the system. [13]
signals in the numerator and denominator can be performed
electronically. Therefore, in a post processing stage, the This current to voltage converter has the advantage of be-
arctangent can be calculated. ing simple to construct and understand. The main limitation
The interferogram provided by the system in Fig.1 can be of this configuration is the bandwidth, which turns out to
very diffuse, depending on the optical components used. In be a critical issue when detecting low intensity signals. The
addition, the interferogram has a large background intensity. bandwidth can be increased by means of a reduction of the
He-Ne
632.8 nm
Fig. 4. Detection Block. The interferograms are produced by polarized
DUT films and detected with photodiodes. Dotted lines indicate the direction of
QWP2 the transmission axis of the films. The current provided by the photodiodes
QWP1 is converted into voltage signals vI,Q (t) by Transimpedance Amplifiers
(TIAs). [6]
Mirror
The detector produces four phase shifted interferograms
Fig. 3. A Polarization Michelson interferometer. HWP: half waveplate, (similar to the ones in Eq. (2)) that are converted into
PBS: polarized beam splitter, QWP1,2 : quarter waveplates, MO: micro- voltage signals by TIAs as we show in Fig. 4. The TIAs
scope objective. d(t) is the off-plane displacement of the Device Under
Test (DUT) to be measured. [6] are made by operational amplifiers in differential mode. The
output signals of the TIAs are voltage signals that depend
The physical displacement of the DUT modulates the on the difference in the currents of the photodiodes (i.e., the
polarization state of the light reaching the detector. If there difference of the interferograms). The output signals vI and
is a single polarizer in the detection block, we have an vQ are, respectively,
interferogram I(t), vI (t) = Rλ [I1 (t) − I3 (t)]R (9)
4π
vQ (t) = Rλ [I2 (t) − I4 (t)]R (10)
I(t) = A + B cos d(t) + θ(t) (4)
λ where the identical resistors R determine the transimpedance
gain of each TIA at the low frequency limit. The photodetec-
where λ is the wavelength of the laser source, d(t) is
tors (assumed identical) have responsivities Rλ . This way,
the displacement of the DUT and θ(t) is a random phase
the products Rλ IN (t) represent the currents produced by
difference between the branches of the interferometer. If the
the photodiodes.
displacement d(t) is less than λ/2, the detected intensity is
A. Sensor implementation and characterization
4π
I(t) = A + B cos θ(t) − d(t) sin θ(t) (5) The sensor consists of four photodiodes BPW34s [18]
λ and two FET-input operational amplifiers OPA657 [19] in
On high speed applications, such as in ultrasonics, d(t) transimpedance configuration. Its topology is shown in Fig.
varies much faster than θ(t). Then we can write I(t) as the 5. The transimpedance amplifier was designed to achieve
sum of two terms, maximum transimpedance gain in a 10 MHz bandwidth
and to minimize the total input noise current √ IEQ (i.e.
I(t) = IDC + IAC (6) maximizing the SNR). IEQ is measured in A/ Hz and
represents the minimum input current, integrated over the
where, bandwidth of the amplifier, which yielded a SNR of 0 dB
up to the cutoff frequency. In order to achieve a maximally with female BNC connectors. The voltage supply pins of
flat second order Butterworth frequency response, we must each TIA are decoupled to ground by capacitors. The bias
fulfil the following relation: voltage of the photodiodes is decoupled by a second-order
r passive filter (cutoff frequency below 40 kHz). The size of
1 GBP the PCB is 40 mm × 30 mm and the effective illuminated
= (11)
2πRF CF 4πRF CD area (which includes the four photodiodes) is 7 mm × 7
where RF is the feedback resistance (transimpedance gain at mm. The sensor developed is shown in Fig. 6.
low frequency) and CF is the feedback capacitance. Parallel
to RF and CD is the total input capacitance at the inverter
pin of the operational amplifier. This capacitance includes
both the photodiode capacitance and the capacitance of the
operational amplifier inputs. GBP is the gain-bandwidth
product of the amplifier. RF is calculated to achieve a
bandwidth of 10 MHz using,
r
GBP
f−3dB = (12) Fig. 6. Physical implementation of the Quad Optical Sensor. [6]
2πRF CD
Instead of introducing an extra component, we take ad- A separate test setup (Fig. 7) is used to characterize the
vantage of the parasitic capacitance of the resistor as the electro-optical response of the sensor in the frequency range
compensation capacitor CF to avoid instability issues. The from 100 kHz to 10 MHz. A LED light source with
total input noise current of the amplifier is, sinusoidal intensity modulation illuminates the four photo-
s diodes uniformly. The modulation amplitude and linearity is
4kT
2
(eN 2πCD f−3dB )2 verified independently using a ThorLabs PDA 155 optical
IEQ = 2
IN + + (13) detector [21].
RF 3
where IN is the input current noise for the operational
Modulated
amplifier inverting input and eN is the input voltage noise.
Full calculations and design considerations for Eqs. (11), Sensor
(12), and (13) are found in [1], [14], [19], [20]. Light Source
GND
X3-3 C3 C4 10u
GND
HP 8648A
X3-2
10n 100n C6
+
V- C1 C2 10u
D1 OPA657 1-227161-0
VD- 4
47
3
1
R2
[6]
PCB BOTTOM VIEW
BPW34
D2 X1
5
IC1
100k
R5
V+
AOM
-8 He-Ne
1 10 632.8 nm
Frequency [MHz]
+1 DUT
x10-5 Or
QWP
-0.5
0
1 @70 MHz
−1
−1.5
- (B) 2 (C) Fig. 9. A heterodyne Polarization Michelson interferometer. HWP: half
−2
waveplate, AOM: Acousto-Optic Modulator, PBS: polarized beam splitter,
−2.5 QWP: quarter waveplate, MO: microscope objective. P: Polarizer. d(t) is
1 10 1 10 the off-plane displacement of the device under test (DUT) to be measured.
Frequency [MHz] Frequency [MHz]
79
78 81.5
82 This work is supported by four UBACYT
77
80.5
81
grants from Universidad de Buenos Aires (2014-
76 80
75
79.5
79
2017 UBACYT 20020130100346BA, UBACYT
6 7 8 6 7 8
10 10 10
10 10
Frequency [Hz]
10
Frequency [Hz] 2016-2017 20020150200143BA, UBACYT 2017-
3
3 2019 20020160100042BA, UBACYT 2017-2019
2.5 2.8
2 2.6
20020160100052BA). The corresponding author
1.5
7 8
2.4
6 7 8
acknowledges a doctoral scholarship from CONICET.
10 10 10 10 10
Frequency [Hz] Frequency [Hz]
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Fig. 12. Transfer function measurement of developed TIAs.
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