Measurement of the characteristics of a quadrant
avalanche photodiode and its application to
a laser tracking system
Masahiro Toyoda
Kenichi Araki
Yoshiaki Suzuki
Communications Research Laboratory
4-2-1, Nukuikitamachi, Koganei
Tokyo 184-8795, Japan
E-mail: toyoda@crl.go.jp
1 Introduction
The technique of detecting an optical spot position is used
in many kinds of optical systems. For example, a laser
tracking system for laser communication in free space in-
evitably has an optical spot position detector.1 The received
optical spot weakens as the distance to the counterpart be-
comes longer, and the received intensity fluctuates accord-
ing to the pointing jitter of the received laser beam. There-
fore, high sensitivity and low detection error are required
for optical spot position detection.
A quadrant-type photodiode is used to detect an optical
spot position because of its fast response and ease of optical
alignment.1–3 In particular, to detect the position of a faint
optical spot, a quadrant-type avalanche photodiode 共APD兲
is used because of its high sensitivity.4 The characteristic of
a quadrant APD at the temperature of liquid nitrogen has
been measured.5
In this study, the performance of a quadrant APD that
has a narrow transition region is described. Besides its ba-
sic characteristics, the variation of the multiplication factor
of its four cells is detailed. We have calculated optical re-
ceiving efficiencies and sensitivities of spot position detec-
tion when using the quadrant APD. The characteristics of
the quadrant APD are compared with those of a quadrant
photodiode. Finally, an example in which the quadrant APD
is applied to a laser tracking system is described.
2 Characteristics of the Quadrant APD
We measured the characteristics of a quadrant APD manu-
factured by Hamamatsu. The optical receiving area and the
cross section of the quadrant APD are shown in Fig. 1.
Table 1 lists its specifications. The 1.5-mm-diam optical
receiving area is divided into four cells by a cross. The
transition region between the adjacent cells does not detect
an incident photon. The four cells are labeled A, B, C, and
Opt. Eng. 41(1) 145–149 (January 2002) 0091-3286/2002/$15.00
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Abstract. We measured the characteristics of a quadrant-type ava-
lanche photodiode (APD). Its transition region between the adjacent cells
had a narrow width of 35 ␮m. As the multiplication factor of the quadrant
APD was limited by the variety of that among the quadrant cells, the
maximum multiplication factor was about 30. We investigated the perfor-
mance on applying the quadrant APD to a laser tracking system. A noise-
equivalent angle of less than 1 ␮rad (rms) was achieved at a received
optical power of more than 4 pW. The quadrant APD compared favorably
with a photodiode quadrant detector when the received power was less
than 100 pW. © 2002 Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers.
[DOI: 10.1117/1.1418222]
Subject terms: tracking; photodiode; avalanche photodiode; signal-to-noise ratio.
Paper 200497 received Dec. 18, 2000; revised manuscript received June 5,
2001; accepted for publication June 6, 2001.
D. The anode of the four cells is common, and a reverse
bias voltage is applied to it. The signal current is read from
the cathode side of each cell. A simple configuration of the
signal readout circuit is implemented using an operational
amplifier as shown in Fig. 2. We used an operational am-
plifier that had a small input bias current in order to amplify
a signal current of less than 100 pA. The insulation resis-
tance of the circuit substrate was made high by using a
Teflon terminal in conjunction with the quadrant APD. The
⫺3-dB frequency bandwidth of signal detection was 2.3
kHz, and it was limited by the feedback resistor.
The measured multiplication factor for varying the re-
verse bias voltage is shown in Fig. 3. When the reverse bias
voltage was ⫺116 V and the multiplication factor exceeded
30, the output signal from cell A was saturated. Breakdown
took place in that cell. The ratio of maximum to minimum
multiplication factor of the four cells was 1.28 at the re-
verse bias voltage of ⫺110 V. The variation of the multi-
plication factor is thought to arise from the internal differ-
Fig. 1 Configuration of optical receiving area and cross section of
the quadrant APD.
© 2002 Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers 145
 Toyoda, Araki, and Suzuki: Measurement of the characteristics . . .

Table 1 Specification of the quadrant avalanche photodiode.

Detector Si quadrant APD

(Hamamatsu S4402-SPL)
Diameter 1.5 mm
Transition-region width 35 ␮m
Quantum efficiency 0.7 (␭⫽800 nm, M ⫽1)
Resistance between cells ⬎3 G⏲

ences among cells, and it can be compensated for by using

any of several methods. One method is to adjust the ampli-
fier gain of the subsequent electrical circuits individually.
Another is to adjust the reverse bias voltage of each cell to
equalize the multiplication factors of the four cells.
The measured multiplication factors for the temperature
dependence are shown in Fig. 4. The temperature was var-
ied from 2 to 17°C. Measurements were made when the
reverse bias voltage was set at ⫺95 and ⫺100 V. The first-
order temperature coefficient of the multiplication factor
was ⫺0.64 when the reverse bias voltage was ⫺95 V, and
was ⫺0.72 when the reverse bias voltage was ⫺100 V.
The variation of the dark current with the reverse-bias
voltage is shown in Fig. 5. The dark current was 40 pA
when the multiplication factor was 25. The part of the dark
current that is multiplied can be estimated at about 1 pA,
and the part that is not multiplied seemed to be about 10
pA.
The voltage noise spectrum density V n was measured as
a function of the multiplication factor for received optical
powers of cell A of 0.5, 5, and 50 pW, and in the dark. As
the noise spectrum was almost flat up to 1 kHz, V n was
measured at 200 Hz. The results are shown in Fig. 6. From
the result in the dark, the minimum value of V n was 3.16
␮V/Hz1/2, which approximately matched the calculated
value of the thermal noise of 2.87 ␮V/Hz1/2. The excess
multiplication noise figure was about 1.0 according to this
measurement. The contact point of the curve of V n varia-
tion with the tangent line of slope 1, as shown in Fig. 6,
indicates the best fitted value of the multiplication factor.
For example, a multiplication factor of 10 was suitable
when the optical power was 0.5 pW.
The voltage signal-to-noise ratio (SNRv ) for one cell
can be expressed as
Fig. 3 Measured multiplication factor of each cell of the quadrant
APD as a function of the reverse bias voltage.
IL M R f
SNRv ⫽ , 共1兲
V n 冑⌬ f
where I L is the signal current for one cell, M is the multi-
plication factor, R f is the feedback resistance, and ⌬ f is the
frequency bandwidth for spot position detection. The rela-
tionship between the optical power and SNRv for a multi-
plication factor of 13.8 is shown in Fig. 7, where ⌬ f is set
at 200 Hz. When I L was more than a few picoamperes, the
shot noise caused by I L was dominant. This condition is
depicted as the dotted line of Fig. 7, and the logarithmic
derivative of the optical power with respect to the SNRv
was 2. In this case, a high signal-to-noise ratio can be main-
tained while decreasing the optical power. However, when
the SNRv derivative is 1, the thermal noise is dominant, as
shown by the fine line. For this quadrant APD, the shot-
noise-dominant condition could be achieved when the op-
tical received power was several picowatts and the multi-
plication factor was 13.8. To compare the quadrant APDs
with a quadrant photodiode, the SNRv of a quadrant pho-

Fig. 4 Temperature dependence of the multiplication factor mea-

Fig. 2 Signal readout electrical circuit of the quadrant APD. sured by the sum of the four cell outputs.

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 Toyoda, Araki, and Suzuki: Measurement of the characteristics . . .

Fig. 5 Measured dark current of the four cells as a function of the Fig. 7 Relation between the voltage signal-to-noise ratio SNRv and
reverse bias voltage. received optical power per cell for a multiplication factor of 13.8.

todiode is shown by the bold line in Fig. 7. The thermal

noise is dominant for a photodiode in this case. When the They are functions of the center position of the spot 共x,y兲
received optical power is less than 40 pW per cell, the and expressed as
SNRv of the quadrant APD exceeds that of a photodiode.
E x 共 x,y 兲
3 Detecting an Optical Spot Position
2 兰 ⫺x⫺Z
x⫹Z
共 r 2 ⫺x 2 兲 1/2 dx⫺4xZ
An optical spot is incident on the four cells of the quadrant ⫽ ,
␲ r 2 ⫺2 兰 y⫺Z 共 r ⫺y 2 兲 1/2 dy⫺2 兰 x⫺Z
y⫹Z 2
共 r ⫺x 2 兲 1/2 dx⫹4Z 2
x⫹Z 2
APD as shown in Fig. 8. The intersection of the transition
region is set as the origin of the x-y coordinates. The re- 共3兲
spective output signals from the quadrant APD are labeled E y 共 x,y 兲
V a , V b , V c , and V d . The tracking signal that represents
the variation in the optical spot position is E x in the direc- 2 兰 ⫺y⫺Z
y⫹Z
共 r 2 ⫺y 2 兲 1/2 dy⫺4yZ
⫽
tion of the x axis and E y in the direction of the y axis.6 The ␲ r 2 ⫺2 兰 y⫺Z 共 r ⫺y 2 兲 1/2 dy⫺2 兰 x⫺Z
y⫹Z 2
共 r ⫺x 2 兲 1/2 dx⫹4Z 2
x⫹Z 2

values of E x and E y are given by

under the conditions 兩 x 兩 ⭐r⫺Z, 兩 y 兩 ⭐r⫺Z, where r is the
V a ⫹V b ⫺V c ⫺V d spot radius and 2Z the width of the transition region. A
E x⫽ , circular optical spot and uniform intensity distributions are
V a ⫹V b ⫹V c ⫹V d
assumed.
共2兲
V a ⫹V d ⫺V c ⫺V b The spot-position-detection sensitivity in the direction of
E y⫽ . the y axis, S y (x,y), is the derivative of E y (x,y) with re-
V a ⫹V b ⫹V c ⫹V d spect to the displacement of the spot position in the direc-
tion of the y axis. It can be expressed as

Fig. 6 Measured voltage noise spectrum density V n at 200 Hz of

cell A as a function of the multiplication factor for optical received
powers of 0.5, 5, and 50 pW and in the dark. Fig. 8 Illustration of received optical spot on the quadrant APD.

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 Toyoda, Araki, and Suzuki: Measurement of the characteristics . . .

Fig. 9 Calculated sensitivity of optical spot position detection in the

direction of the y axis, 关 S y (0,0) 兴 and optical receiving efficiency ␥(0,
0) as functions of optical spot diameter.

S y 共 0,0兲 ⫽
dE y 共 x,y 兲
dy
冏 x⫽0, y⫽0

4 共 r 2 ⫺Z 2 兲 1/2⫺4Z
⫽ 共4兲 Fig. 10 A laser tracking system equipped with a quadrant APD.
␲ r 2 ⫺4r 2 sin⫺1 共 Z/r 兲 ⫺4Z 共 r 2 ⫺Z 2 兲 1/2⫹4Z 2

when the spot is received at the center of the quadrant cells. 1

Since part of the optical spot is not detected by the transi-
tion region, the optical receiving efficiency ␥ (x,y) is ex-
pressed by
␲ r 2 ⫺4r 2 sin⫺1 共 Z/r 兲 ⫺4Z 共 r 2 ⫺Z 2 兲 1/2⫹4Z 2
␥ 共 0,0兲 ⫽
␲r2
when the optical spot is received at the center. The optical
spot diameter dependences of S y (0,0) and ␥ 共0, 0兲 are
shown in Fig. 9. Because the spot diameter is small, the
variation rates of S y (0,0) and ␥共0, 0兲 depend greatly on it.
NEA⫽ , 共6兲
f eflS y 共 0,0兲 SNRv
where f efl is the effective focal length of the focusing on the
quadrant APD.6 We calculated the NEA of a laser tracking
system that was equipped with the quadrant APD. The re-
共5兲 lationship between the NEA and the total power of the op-
tical spot is shown in Fig. 11 for a received spot diameter of
0.5 mm, S y (0,0) of 5.71 mm⫺1, ␥共0, 0兲 of 0.83, and f efl of
4 m. When the optical spot power is more than 4 pW, an
NEA of less than 1 ␮rad 共rms兲 can be maintained. The NEA
for a quadrant photodiode is indicated by the dotted line.
Other position sensors, such as lateral photodiodes6 and
charge-coupled devices 共CCDs兲, are insufficient in sensitiv-

4 Application to a Laser Tracking System

A laser tracking system is usually used for compensating
the angular error of a laser beam pointing in a long-range
laser link, such as a ground-to-satellite or intersatellite laser
link. A schematic of a laser tracking system is shown in
Fig. 10. The system consists mainly of the wavefront tilt
sensor. The received laser beam is focused on the quadrant
APD, which is arranged almost on the focal plane of the
lens. The incident angle to the telescope is detected as the
optical spot position on the quadrant APD. The controller
performs the calculation of the tracking signals (E x ,E y )
and a compensation of the closed-loop system. The tip-tilt
mirror is driven by the tracking signals from the quadrant
APD to keep the optical spot at the center of the four cells.
As the laser beam is transmitted through the tip-tilt mirror,
the laser beam is pointed toward its counterpart.
The noise-equivalent angle 共NEA兲 is the angle of the
detection error caused by noise in the spot position detec- Fig. 11 Noise-equivalent angle (rms) of a laser tracking system
tor, and it is a measure of the performance of a laser track- equipped with a quadrant APD, as a function of the total power of
ing system. It is expressed in terms of the SNRv : the optical spot.

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 Toyoda, Araki, and Suzuki: Measurement of the characteristics . . .
ity for position sensing of a faint optical spot at present.
Using the quadrant APD instead of a quadrant photodiode
is advantageous from the point of view of the NEA when
the optical spot power is less than 100 pW.
5 Summary
The multiplication factor of the quadrant APD was limited
by unbalance of the multiplication factors in the four cells,
so the maximum multiplication factor was about 30. The
quadrant APD was applied to the wavefront tilt sensor of a
laser tracking system, and the NEA of the system was less
than 1 ␮rad 共rms兲 for a received optical power of more than
4 pW. The NEA performance of the quadrant APD was
better than that of a quadrant photodiode when the received
power was less than 100 pW. The quadrant APD used in
this study has the advantage of greater sensitivity for posi-
tion sensing of a faint optical spot of visible and near-
infrared light in comparison with other position sensors.
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Masahiro Toyoda received the MS degree
in electrical engineering from Chiba Univer-
sity in 1987. He started work at Communi-
cations Research Laboratory (CRL) in
1988. He was engaged in research on la-
ser beam transmission to satellites, par-
ticularly for the ETS-VI optical communica-
tion experiment. From 1996 to July 1999,
he was employed in the National Space
Development Agency of Japan on the
OICETS (Optical Inter-orbit Communica-
tions Engineering Test Satellite) project. He then rejoined CRL and
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returned to research on space laser communication. He is a mem-
ber of the Institute of Electrical, Information, Communication and
Electronics Engineers of Japan and the Laser Society of Japan.
Kenichi Araki joined Radio Research
Laboratory (now Communications Re-
search Laboratory) in 1982. From 1990 to
1997 he worked on the development of an
onboard optical package for the ETS-VI
satellite and conducted a demonstration of
a laser communication experiment using
the ETS-VI satellite and optical ground sta-
tions. His current interests are in the field of
optical space communications network
technologies for future advanced systems.
He received the BS, MS, and Dr Eng degrees in electrical engineer-
ing from Tohoku University, Sendai, Japan in 1973, 1975, and 1980,
respectively. He is a member of the Institute of Electrical, Informa-
tion, Communication and Electronics Engineers of Japan and the
Optical Society of America.
Yoshiaki Suzuki received the BS and MS
degrees in electrical engineering from To-
hoku University, Sendai, Japan, in 1974
and 1976, respectively. In 1976, he joined
Communications Research Laboratories
(CRL), Ministry of Posts and Telecommuni-
cations, and has been engaged in space
communication system research work. In
1995, he joined National Space Develop-
ment Agency of Japan (NASDA) and
worked on the OICETS project. He re-
turned to CRL in 1997, and is now the executive director of the
Wireless Communications Division. He is responsible for the re-
search work on the terrestrial wireless communications system and
satellite communications system conducted by CRL. He is a mem-
ber of the Institute of Electronics, Information, and Communication
Engineers of Japan, the American Institute of Aeronautics and As-
tronautics, and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers.
Optical Engineering, Vol. 41 No. 1, January 2002 149