Numerical analysis of distortion characteristics of heterojunction bipolar transistor laser

Numerical analysis of harmonic and third order intermodulation distortion of transistor laser is presented in this paper. The three level rate equations are numerically solved to determine the modulation and distortion characteristics. DC and AC analysis on the device are carried out to determine its power-current and frequency response characteristics. Further, the effects of quantum well recombination time and electron capture time in the quantum well, on the modulation depth and distortion characteristics are examined. It is observed that the threshold current density of the device decreases with increasing electron lifetime, which coincides with earlier findings. Also, the magnitude of harmonic distortion and intermodulation products are found to reduce with increasing current density and with a reduction of spontaneous emission recombination lifetime. However, an increase of electron capture time improves the distortion performance. A maximum modulation depth of 18.42 dB is obtained for 50 ps spontaneous emission life time and 1 ps electron capture time, for 2.4 GHz frequency at a current density of 2Jth. A minimum second harmonic distortion magnitude of −66.8 dBc is predicted for 50 ps spontaneous emission life time and 1 ps electron capture time for 2.4 GHz frequency, at a current density of 7Jth. Similarly, a minimum third order intermodulation distortion of −83.93 dBc is obtained for 150 ps spontaneous emission life time and 5 ps electron capture time under similar biasing conditions.