40-GHz transimpedance amplifier with differential outputs using InP-InGaAs heterojunction bipolar transistors

High-gain and high-bandwidth transimpedance amplifiers (TIAs) are required for fiber-optic receiver modules. This paper reports on the design, fabrication, and characterization of a 40-Gb/s TIA for SONET/SDH STS-768/STM-256 applications based on an InP-InGaAs single heterojunction bipolar transistor (SHBT) process developed at Vitesse Semiconductor Corporation (Vitesse Indium Phosphide Release 1 or VIP-1). This amplifier consists of a single-ended input transimpedance pre-amplifier and a differential output post-amplifier. The measured differential transimpedance is 1800 /spl Omega/ with -3-dB bandwidth greater than 40 GHz. The high gain of this circuit eliminates the need for a standalone limiting amplifier between the conventional transimpedance pre-amplifier and the demultiplexer in short-reach applications.     

20 mW 1.25 Gbit/s CMOS transimpedance amplifier with 30 dB dynamic range

A 1.25 Gbit/s transimpedance amplifier using a novel photodiode capacitance cancellation technique has been demonstrated in 0.35 mum CMOS technology. The transimpedance amplifier achieved a transimpedance gain of 17.1 kOmega as well as a wide dynamic range from +1 to -29 dBm while consuming only 20 mW from a 3 V supply     

A low-power 20-GHz 52-dB/spl Omega/ transimpedance amplifier in 80-nm CMOS

This paper describes the design of a transimpedance amplifier (TIA) for a low-power, short-distance, high-density fiber-optic interconnect communication system. The single-ended circuit has been designed in an 80-nm digital CMOS process and consumes only 2.2 mW from a 1-V supply. The measured results show a transimpedance gain of 52 dB/spl Omega/ and a large bandwidth of 20 GHz. This work presents the highest bandwidth at the lowest power consumption for CMOS transimpedance amplifiers reported to date.     

A Si BiCMOS transimpedance amplifier for 10-Gb/s SONET receiver

A transimpedance amplifier packaged with an InP p-i-n photodiode has been demonstrated for 10-Gb/s SONET receiver. The shunt feedback transimpedance amplifier is fabricated in 0.25-μm modular Si BiCMOS technology. The transimpedance of 55 dBΩ is achieved at a bandwidth of 9 GHz by applying shunt peaking and filter termination at the input. The optical sensitivity of -17 dBm was measured at 10 Gb/s for a bit-error rate of 10^-12     

SiGe differential transimpedance amplifier with 50-GHz bandwidth

InP and SiGe technologies are both attractive for design of circuits operating at 40 GB/s and beyond. In this paper, we describe a fully differential SiGe transimpedance amplifier (TIA) suitable for differential phase-shift keying applications. The TIA exhibits 49 dB-/spl Omega/ transimpedance, greater than 50-GHz bandwidth, and input-referred current noise less than 30 pA//spl radic/Hz. For comparison, we have also developed a similar TIA in an InP double-heterostructure bipolar transistor technology. The InP TIA had 48 dB-/spl Omega/ transimpedance and 49-GHz bandwidth.     

DC to 2.5 Gb/s×4 p-i-n/HBT optical receiver array with lowcrosstalk

A multichannel optical receiver with an In_0.53Ga_0.47As p-i-n photodetector array and a monolithic transimpedance amplifier array fabricated in AlGaAs/GaAs HBT (heterojunction bipolar transistor) technology were demonstrated. Both flip-chip rear-illuminated and wire-bonded front-illuminated detector configurations were implemented. The transimpedance was 65 dBΩ, and the 3-dB bandwidth was measured to be 2.3 GHz. By using series feedback, the transimpedance gain of each cell was matched to within 0.5 dB, and the entire array operated from a single 5-V supply. A low interchannel crosstalk of less than -40 dB was measured up to a data rate of 2 Gb/s     

155 Mbit/s optical wireless link using a bootstrapped silicon APDreceiver

A 155 Mbit/s optical wireless link has been implemented using a large-area silicon APD, bootstrapped, transimpedance receiver and a hologram-based laser transmitter. The receiver gives high sensitivity and high transimpedance while providing a large photodiode collection area     

Fabrication of Transimpedance Amplifier Module and Post‐Amplifier Module for 40 Gb/s Optical Communication Systems

The design and performance of an InGaAs/InP transimpedance amplifier and post amplifier for 40 Gb/s receiver applications are presented. We fabricated the 40 Gb/s transimpedance amplifier and post amplifier using InGaAs/InP heterojunction bipolar transistor (HBT) technology. The developed InGaAs/InP HBTs show a cut‐off frequency (f_T) of 129 GHz and a maximum oscillation frequency (f_max) of 175 GHz. The developed transimpedance amplifier provides a bandwidth of 33.5 GHz and a gain of 40.1 dBΩ. A 40 Gb/s data clean eye with 146 mV amplitude of the transimpedance amplifier module is achieved. The fabricated post amplifier demonstrates a very wide bandwidth of 36 GHz and a gain of 20.2 dB. The post‐amplifier module was fabricated using a Teflon PCB substrate and shows a good eye opening and an output voltage swing above 520 mV.     

Large-signal characteristics of InP-based heterojunction bipolartransistors and optoelectronic cascode transimpedance amplifiers

A large-signal model for InP/InGaAs-based single HBTs incorporating soft-breakdown effects to the LIBRA Gummel-Poon (GP) model is developed and its validity is established from DC to microwave frequencies and over a wide range of input excitation levels. The large-signal characteristics of a cascode InP-based transimpedance optoelectronic preamplifier employing such devices are studied. Gain compression for the preamplifier was found to take place at an input power level of -20 dBm. Input power excitation varying from -65 to -5 dBm results in a degradation of the amplifier transimpedance gain of the order of 3 dBn. Experimental and theoretical characteristics are presented for the InP-based HBTs and transimpedance amplifier. Self-biasing effects are suggested as possible origin of the transimpedance variations with input power     

An InP/InGaAs p-i-n/HBT monolithic transimpedance photoreceiver

A monolithically integrated 1-Gb/s p-i-n/HBT transimpedance photoreceiver is discussed. The optoelectronic integrated circuit (OEIC) was made from metalorganic vapor-phase epitaxy (MOVPE)-grown InP/InGaAs heterostructures and had a transimpedance of 1375 Ω, a sensitivity of -26.1 dBm, >25-dB dynamic range, and a 500-MHz bandwidth     

Design of active transimpedance band-pass filters with different Q values

Transimpedance filter is a filter which realises a transimpedance transfer function. In this article, the design methods for the transimpedance band-pass filter are presented. The circuit topologies and parameter calculation formulas of three bi-quadratic transimpedance band-pass filter topologies with low-, medium- and high-Q values are proposed, respectively. A high-order transimpedance filter can be obtained by realising a bi-quadratic transimpedance filter first and then cascaded with voltage-mode bi-quads. A high-order transimpedance filter design example is given; the simulation and the measured results verify the effectiveness of the proposed transimpedance filter design method.     

High-gain differential CMOS transimpedance amplifier with on-chip buried double junction photodiode

An integrated fully differential CMOS transimpedance amplifier (TIA) with buried double junction photodiode input is described. The TIA features a variable high transimpedance gain (250 k/spl Omega/ to 2.5 M/spl Omega/), large DC photocurrent rejection capability (>55 dB) and low input referred noise density at 100 kHz (2pA//spl radic/Hz).     

5.2-GHz bandwidth monolithic GaAs optoelectronic receiver

A high-speed monolithic optoelectronic receiver consisting of a photodetector, a transimpedance amplifier and a 50-Ω output buffer stage has been fabricated using an enhancement/depletion 0.35-μm recessed-gate GaAs MESFET process. The interdigitated metal-semiconductor-metal photodetector has a dark current of 0.8 nA, a responsivity of 0.2 A/W, and a capacitance of 12 fF. The bandwidth of the receiver is 5.2 GHz with an effective transimpedance of 300 Ω into a 50-Ω load, which corresponds to a transimpedance bandwidth product of 1.5 THz-Ω     

Monolithic PIN/preamplifier circuit integrated on a GaAs substrate

An AlGaAs/GaAs PIN photodiode and a GaAs transimpedance amplifier including six FETs have been monolithically integrated on a GaAs substrate. A photoreceiver operation exhibiting an excellent linearity has been demonstrated. The photodiode sensitivity of 0.44 A/W and the amplifier transimpedance of 1.0 × l04 V/A have been determined from the measurement.     

Design of a low-power 3.5-GHz broad-band CMOS transimpedance amplifier for optical transceivers

This paper describes a novel low-power low-noise CMOS voltage-current feedback transimpedance amplifier design using a low-cost Agilent 0.5-/spl mu/m 3M1P CMOS process technology. Theoretical foundations for this transimpedance amplifier by way of gain, bandwidth and noise analysis are developed. The bandwidth of the amplifier was extended using the inductive peaking technique, and, simulation results indicated a -3-dB bandwidth of 3.5 GHz with a transimpedance gain of /spl ap/60 dBohms. The dynamic range of the amplifier was wide enough to enable an output peak-to-peak voltage swing of around 400 mV for a test input current swing of 100 /spl mu/A. The output noise voltage spectral density was 12 nV//spl radic/Hz (with a peak of /spl ap/25 nV//spl radic/Hz), while the input-referred noise current spectral density was below 20 pA//spl radic/Hz within the amplifier frequency band. The amplifier consumes only around 5 mA from a 3.3-V power supply. A test chip implementing the transimpedance amplifier was also fabricated using the low-cost CMOS process.     

Design of active transimpedance band-pass filters with different Q values

Transimpedance filter is a filter which realises a transimpedance transfer function. In this paper, the design methods for transimpedance band-pass filter are presented. The circuit topologies and parameter calculation formulas of three bi-quadratic transimpedance band-pass filter topologies with LQ, MQ and HQ are proposed respectively. High order transimpedance filter can be obtained by realising a bi-quadratic transimpedance filter first and then cascaded with voltage mode bi-quads. A high order transimpedance filter design example is given, the simulation and the measured results verify the effectiveness of the proposed transimpedance filter design method.     

Low-power InP/GaAsSb/InP DHBT cascode transimpedance amplifier with GBP/P/sub dc/ of 7.2 GHz/mW

A low-power high gain-bandwidth monolithic cascode transimpedance amplifier using novel InP/GaAsSb/InP DHBT technology was investigated. The amplifier exhibited state-of-the-art performance of 17.3 dB gain, 12 GHz bandwidth, 55 dB/spl Omega/ transimpedance, and a corresponding gain-bandwidth of 6.7 THz/spl Omega/ while consuming only 12.2 mW DC power. It also achieved good gain-bandwidth-product per DC power figure-of-merit (GBP/P/sub dc/) of 7.2 GHz/mW     

Low-noise, high-gain Si-bipolar preamplifiers for 10 Gb/soptical-fiber links-design and realization

Design principles and circuit configurations of Si-bipolar transimpedance preamplifiers for 10 Gb/s optical-fiber links are discussed. The target specifications of the amplifier are near the limit achievable by the available technology. Therefore, the different amplifier stages had to be carefully optimized with respect to both flat magnitude and constant group delay of the total transimpedance up to about 7.5 GHz. Two different versions of preamplifiers were fabricated in an advanced production technology (f_T≈23 GHz). High transimpedance (710 Ω) and low equivalent input noise current density (averaged: ≈9 pA/√(Hz)) were achieved     

Improved voltage gain of transimpedance amplifier by AlGaAs/InGaAsdoped-channel FET's

AlGaAs/InGaAs doped-channel FET's were investigated, and were utilized for transimpedance (TZ) amplifier circuits. Due to a high current density, a high gain linearity, and high gate breakdown and turn-on voltages of device characteristics, the AlGaAs/InGaAs doped-channel FET is shown to increase the noise margins and voltage gain in a buffered FET logic (BFL) inverter circuit, as compared with the circuit performance built by GaAs MESFET's. This amplifier also improves transimpedance gain, dynamic signal level, and the 3-dB frequency bandwidth. The transimpedance gain-bandwidth product (Z_T ·BW) is 17 GHz·kΩ, which is much higher than in previous published reports     

A wide-dynamic-range, high-transimpedance Si bipolar preamplifierIC for 10-Gb/s optical fiber links

A wide-dynamic-range, high-transimpedance preamplifier IC for 10-Gb/s optical fiber links was developed using a 0.3-μm Si bipolar process. The preamplifier with a limiting amplifier enables a wide dynamic range from 16 μApp to 2.5 mApp and a high transimpedance of 1 kΩ (2 kΩ in the differential output mode). Moreover, careful circuit design achieves a transimpedance fluctuation of 0.5 dBR and an average equivalent input noise current density of 12 pA/√Hz. This preamplifier IC has the highest transimpedance of any Si bipolar preamplifier for 10-Gb/s operation. Thus, the preamplifier is suitable for 10-Gb/s short-haul optical fiber links and can be used to provide a low-cost system