A 200-Gb/s PAM-4 Feedforward Linear Equalizer with Multiple-Peaking and Fixed Maximum Peaking Frequencies in 130nm SiGe BiCMOS

Abstract

This paper presents a peak-tunable PAM-4 linear equalizer for 200-Gb/s communication in 130-nm SiGe BiCMOS process. It consists of two stage continuous-time linear equalizers (CTLE) and an output driver. The feedforward and degeneration techniques are employed to realize multiple peaks at high, middle and low frequency points, respectively. Moreover, the equalizer can reach a maximum 20.6-dB compensation with a fixed peaking frequency at 51 GHz. The simulation results show that with an 18-dB lossy channel, the proposed equalizer provides a 53-GHz bandwidth and 200-Gb/s PAM-4 eye. It consumes 159-mW power under 2.8/3.3-V supply and achieves 0.80-pJ/bit power efficiency.