Hi, all,
We do a lot of photoreceiver testing, so we've gotten reasonably good at it, including building several test gizmos--amplifiers, pulsers, filters, and so forth.
I've just posted this app note
formatting link
which may be of some interest to folks who do time- and frequency-domain testing of medium-speed optical gizmos.The neatest hack is using the shot noise of the measured DC photocurrent as a well-calibrated signal source for transimpedance measurements. Works amazingly well if your TIA is quiet.
Feedback welcome.
Cheers
Phil Hobbs