CMOS optical receiver with integrated photo detector for high-speed interconnects

Abstract

CMOS optical receivers incorporating on-chip photo detectors have demonstrated strong potentials for data intensive links beyond multi-Gb/s range. This paper presents the design of optical receivers covering from photo detectors to high sensitivity amplifier in generic CMOS technology. A 2-D meshed spatially-modulated photo detector is presented for up to 10-Gb/s operations. A low-noise trans-impedance amplifier with nested feedback shows a conversion gain of 2 kΩ and input sensitivity of 18 μA _pp . Finally, a fully integrated 20-Gb/s 4-channel optical receiver is also demonstrated.