2008 Volume 5 Issue 20 Pages 853-859
In this paper, we present a simple empirical model for calculating gain and excess noise in heterojunction GaAs/AlξGa1-ξAs APDs (0.3≤ξ≤0.6), without going through the relatively complicated and time consuming Monte Carlo simulation, commonly used for such devices. In this model, we present a set of empirical formula which can predict a distribution function for ionization path length for a given electric field throughout multiplication region. To determine the optimized values of the adjustable parameters used in our empirical model, we train a back-propagation neural network. The results are in excellent agreement with those obtained by the random path length (RPL) technique.