Electronic – Please explain this formula for the relationship between bandwidth and the temporal response of a photodetector

bandwidthnoisephotodiodephotosensorsignal

I am reading "Optoelectronic Sensors" by Didier Decoster and Joseph Harari.

At section 1.8.2 they start explaining the relationship between rise time and bandwidth, and they give a very weird formula that I don't understand:

Image showing section 1.8.2 of the referenced book

That's the whole thing, they don't explain anything more. Then they move on to some very interesting things about noise, but they mention BP in there and I don't understand what it is.

Now, my understanding about bandwidth and rise time came from this website, specifically equation 18 that basically says:

$$
t_r = \frac{0.35}{B}
$$

where \$t_r\$ is rise time and \$B\$ is bandwidth.

With that in mind, here is what I don't understand about the equation 1.7 in "Optoelectronic Sensors":

  1. What is BP and how is it different from BW?

  2. Is \$\tau\$ (tau) the rise/fall time? Or is it something else?

  3. What are \$\tau_m\$ (tau_m) and \$\tau_d\$ (tau_d)? They didn't mention them anywhere before.

Best Answer

The equations shown are all derived from the same formula which you already gave:

$$t_r = \frac{0.35}{B}$$

A single-pole system has the frequency response

$$H(s) = \frac{A}{1 + \tau\cdot s}$$

This sytem has a pole at

$$p_d = \frac{1}{\tau} \Rightarrow BW = \frac{1}{2\pi\cdot \tau}$$

The transient step response of this system can be calculated as

$$h_{out} = A\left(1 - e^{-\frac{t}{\tau}}\right)$$

From which you can calculate a timepoint for each output value:

$$t = -\tau\cdot\ln\left(1 - \frac{h_{out}}{A}\right)$$

If you'd rather use the rise/fall time instead of \$\tau\$, you can then easily calculate that

$$\tau_r = -\tau\cdot\ln(1-0.9) + \tau\cdot\ln(1-0.1) = \tau \ln(9) \approx 2.1972\cdot \tau$$

Hence

$$BW = \frac{1}{2\pi\cdot \tau} = \frac{\ln(9)}{2\pi\cdot \tau_r} = \frac{\ln(9)}{2\pi\cdot \tau_f}$$

The abbreviations are the ones used in French. "Bande Passante" (BP) means bandwidth, "Monter" (\$\tau_m\$) means to rise, "Descendre" (\$\tau_d\$) means to fall.