In order to improve the sensitivity of an optical receiver, the gain and the collection area of the photo-detectors within the receiver should be increased. Detectors with internal gain such as avalanche photodiodes (APD) are usually used to increase the sensitivity of the receiver. One problem with APDs is the sensitivity of their gain to their bias voltage, which makes them challenging to be fabricated in a standard CMOS process due to variations in their gain. However, when an APD is biased over its breakdown voltage, it is sensitive to a single photon, hence, referred to as a single photon avalanche diodes (SPAD). The SPADs are photon-counting detectors, which are less sensitive to their bias voltage, and can be integrated with rest of the electronic circuitry that form an optical receiver. An avalanche diode requires dedicated circuits to be operated in the SPAD mode. These circuits make the diode insensitive to an incident photon for a duration that is known as deadtime. Unfortunately, The collection area of the PD, APD, and SPADs are limited to their capacitance. Hence, a large photo-detector leads to a larger capacitance, which reduces the bandwidth of the receiver. In this thesis, a photon counting optical receiver based on an array of SPADs is proposed which increases the collection area with a low output capacitance. The avalanche diode and peripheral circuits which operate and readout-out the SPAD array are fabricated in the commercially available UMC 0.18 μm CMOS process. Initially, the avalanche diode is tested and characterised. A high performance circuit is then designed and tested which is able to achieve short deadtimes up to 4 ns. Once the photon counting operation of the SPAD is verified, a numerical model is developed to investigate the influence of several factors, including the deadtime, on the performance of the photon-counting detector in a communication link. Based on the simulation results, which show the advantages of an array over a single detector, a prototype detector array of 64 asynchronous SPADs is designed and tested. This array uses a high-speed readout mechanism which is inspired by the current steering digital-to-analogue converters. Bit error ratio tests (BERT) verify the photon counting capability of the proposed detector, and a bit error rate of 1E-3 has been achieved at data rate of 100 Mbps. In addition, the array of SPAD is compatible with a front-end of conventional optical receiver which uses a photodiode as a photo detector.

This report explores the design of a system for remotely switching electronics on and off within a range of at least 15 km, to be used with battery driven radio nodes for outdoor Wi-Fi network bridging. The application of the network bridges are connecting to remote networks, should Internet infrastructure fail during an emergency.The problem statement for the report was “What is a suitable radio link technology for use in a remote controlled electrical switch system and how should it best be put to use?” To answer the question, delimitation was done to exploring Low Power Wide Area Network (LPWAN) link technologies, due to their prior use within power constrained devices.Long Range-radio, abbreviated LoRa, is a LPWAN radio modulation technique and was determined to be a good candidate as a suitable link technology for the remote electrical switch system. The range of LoRa is achieved by drastically lowering the data rate of the transmission, and is suitable for battery-powered or energy harvesting devices such as those found in the field of Internet of Things.A LoRa-based transmitter and receiver pair was implemented, and measured to have a packet delivery ratio of over 95% at a distance of 2 km, measured between two bridges. Data at further distances could not be accurately determined, because of the LoRa transceiver giving faulty readings.No conclusion could be made about the suitability for using a LoRa based system to solve the problem, partially due to an improper method for testing the radio performance was used, and partially due to an inconclusive measurement result. / Denna rapport utforskar designen av ett system för att fjärrstyrt slå på eller av elektronik över ett avstånd på minst 15 km, för att användas med batteridrivna radionoder för nätverksbryggning utomhus med Wi-Fi. Tillämpningsområdet för nätverksbryggorna är att koppla samman avlägsna nätverk, om Internetinfrastruktur skulle sluta fungera vid en nödsituation.Problemställningen för rapporten var ”Vad är en lämplig radiolänksteknik att använda i ett fjärrstyrt elektriskt strömbrytarsystem, och hur ska det bäst brukas?”. För att svara på frågan gjordes en avgränsning att utforska Low Power Wide Area Network (LPWAN)-länktekniker, på grund av deras tidigare användning inom effektbegränsade enheter.Long Range-radio, förkortat LoRa, är en radiomodulationsteknik som används för att skicka data över långa avstånd med energibegränsade enheter. LoRa:s räckvidd uppnås genom att drastiskt sänka datatakten, och lämpar sig för bruk i batteridrivna eller energiskördande enheter, likt de som återfinns inom fältet Internet of Things.Ett LoRa-baserat sändaroch mottagarpar implementerades, och uppmättes till att ha en paketlevereringsmängd på över 95% vid ett avstånd på 2 km, mätt mellan två broar. Data vid större avstånd kunde inte bli bestämt noggrant, eftersom LoRa transceivern gav felaktiga avläsningar. Ingen slutsats kunde göras för lämpligheten för att använda ett LoRa-baserat system för att lösa problemet, delvist för att en olämplig metod för att testa radions prestanda använts, och delvist på grund av ett ofullständigt mätresultat.