AbstractIt is shown that even if the modulating frequency of a light is too high for direct detection, the signal can be extracted by frequency conversion at the same time as the detection by means of the nonlinearity of the APD. When this frequency conversion detection is applied to an optical receiver, the detection bandwidth can be increased while the configuration of the optical detection circuit and the signal processing in the subsequent stages are simplified. A fundamental analysis is carried out with an APD which is confirmed experimentally.