Photodiode uses

P–n photodiodes are used in similar applications to other photodetectors, such as photoconductors, charge-coupled devices, and photomultiplier tubes. It consists of built-in lenses, optical filters, and has small or large surface areas. Excellent linearity in output . This series of webpages will explore all of this. In other pages we will explore .

Photosensor responsivity (R ) is measured in Amperes (A) of photocurrent generated per Watt (W) of incident light power.

Actual light levels in most applications typically range from picoWatts to .

Silicon photodiodes are semiconductor devices responsive to high- energy particles and photons. Photodiode Characteristics and Applications. Two basic methods for generating electricity from light, using photodiodes are photovoltaic and photoconductive operation. Both methods use light sensitive semiconductor diodes, the chief difference is that photovoltaic devices, mainly used in solar panels (Fig. .1) do not use any bias voltage applied to the diode, but in . Solar cell is also known as large area photodiode because it converts solar energy or light energy into electric energy.

However, solar cell works only at bright light. The construction and working of photodiode is almost similar to the normal p-n junction diode. PIN (p-type, intrinsic and n-type) structure is mostly used for . For those used for data applications , speed is normally very important . Despite this speeds of GHz and more have been reported . Although ordinary diodes exhibit photodiode properties, it is necessary to adopt the right photodiode structure and to use the right photodiode materials to ensure that the performance is optimised.

A variety of different photodiode structures are used and these vary according to the type of photodiode in question. PN and PIN photodiodes are one of the popular forms of photo diodes. Avalanche photodiodes provide very sensitive light detection.

Operating under reverse bias they use avalanche breakdown to give gain. Normal PN junction photo diode is used in low frequency and low sensitive applications. There are mainly three types of photo diodes. When high frequency of operation and high sensitivity is needed avalanche photo diode or PIN photo diodes are used.

The diode design has some design trade-offs. Increasing the dimensions of the intrinsic region (and its stored charge) allows the diode to look like a .