10-Gb/s Vertical Cavity Surface Emitting Laser Driver

Abstract

A 10-Gb/s Vertical Cavity Surface Emitting Laser (VCSEL) current driver is designed in SMIC 0.18-μm RF CMOS technology, which will be used in the transmitter of optical interconnect system. High current driving capability as well as agile switching speed is achieved by shunt peaking technique and cascade structure. Under a single 1.8V power supply, the driver delivers a modulation current of more than 10mA and consumes only 22.5mW when working at 10-Gb/s. The simulation results show that it can drive the common anode VCSEL well. The chip size is 800×500μm^2.