Hey all I have some questions about photodiode amps. I'm thinking about an amp that uses two photodiodes where one is used to measure an incoming signal and the second is used as a reference to remove the influence of ambient light.
1. What makes more sense?
(a) Giving both photodiodes their own amplifier and subtracting the amplified outputs from each other (more components but less unknowns)
(b) Connect both photodiodes anti-parallel to each other to a single amplifier (this feels like the superior way but I feel I might be missing a problem with this setup)
2. Seeing as how I want to have two diodes to eliminate common mode signals, is there any way electrical (no optical filters) to stop them from saturating when exposed to intense light that would otherwise saturate a single lone photodiode ? The only thing I can think of that even has any chance of doing this is anti-parallel photodiodes but I don't think it does.
1. What makes more sense?
(a) Giving both photodiodes their own amplifier and subtracting the amplified outputs from each other (more components but less unknowns)
(b) Connect both photodiodes anti-parallel to each other to a single amplifier (this feels like the superior way but I feel I might be missing a problem with this setup)
2. Seeing as how I want to have two diodes to eliminate common mode signals, is there any way electrical (no optical filters) to stop them from saturating when exposed to intense light that would otherwise saturate a single lone photodiode ? The only thing I can think of that even has any chance of doing this is anti-parallel photodiodes but I don't think it does.
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