A 0.68 pJ/bit inductor-less optical receiver for 20 Gbps with 0.0025 mm2 area in 28 nm CMOS

Abstract

This paper presents the design, electrical and optical measurements of a receiver for optical communications in 28 nm CMOS. Electrical measurements show an error-free transmission with a bit error rate (BER) of 10 -12 up to 20 Gbps. Inductor-less peaking methods are used, thus the circuit is very compact. With only 0.0025 mm 2 , 13.6 mW power consumption, yielding 0.68 pJ/bit it is one of the smallest and most energy efficient receiver to this date for 20 Gbps data rate (DR). The receiver was bonded to a printed circuit board (PCB) and to a 14 Gbps, 850 nm photo diode. An error-free transmission over the optical link was obtained up to 17 Gbps with an input optical sensitivity of -4.3 dBm. The measured sensitivity at 15 Gbps is just -7.5 dBm and -8.4 dBm for 10 Gbps.

An energy- and area-efficient limiting amplifier with interleaving feedback for 25Gb/s optical receiver

“…Especially, the multi-channel parallel scheme of optical modules has become one of the best options for Ethernet standards [4,5]. In order to realize the cost optimization of multiple parallel optical transceivers, high-speed analog front end (AFE) with high energy efficiency and low-area has attracted more and more attentions [6,7,8,9].…”

Low‐cost InP–InGaAs PIN–HBT‐based OEIC for up to 20 Gb/s optical communication systems

“…Since their optical/electrical bandwidth and conversion gain dominate the entire characteristics of the receivers [6], improving these crucial parameters are paramount in high data rate capability of the optical systems. For photoreceiver circuits' implementations, HEMTs [3,[5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22].…”

“…Therefore, a surface illuminated, low-cost HBT-PIN-based OEICs receiver is undeniably important for high-performance 10 Gb/s EPON optical transmission system. [3,5,6,[9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24] This work is concerned with the design, characterisation and modelling of high-speed InP/InGaAs PIN-SHBT-based OEIC photoreceivers. More importantly, full-scale characterisations of the receivers using CAD tools prior to the fabricated circuits are invaluable in the prediction of prospective performances and to aid in further optimisations.…”