Circuits and technologies for highly integrated optical networking ICs at 10 Gb/s to 40 Gb/s

Abstract

This paper presents a comparative overview of the performance of Si CMOS, SiGe BiCMOS and III-V HBT and FET technologies for 10-40 Gb/s fiber-optic applications. Active and passive device performance requirements, as well as on-chip isolation issues are first addressed. Fundamental building blocks are overviewed and the pros and cons of each technology implementation are discussed. Finally, a sub 2.5 W, highly integrated 10 Gb/s SiGe BiCMOS implementation of a 10 Gb/s to 622 Mb/s transceiver is described in detail. The transceiver achieves the highest level of integration, providing EOI (electro-optical-interface) and SerDes (Serializer-Deserializer) functions.