A 25Gb/s low-noise optical receiver in 0.13 μm SiGe BiCMOS

Abstract

A 25Gb/s CMOS optical receiver with superior noise performance is presented. The fully integrated receiver comprises a transimpedance amplifier (TIA), a main amplifier (MA), auxiliary analog loops and on-chip bias circuitry. The receiver employs a novel noise optimization technique for BJT-based shunt-feedback TIA, together with gain and bandwidth boosting methods to achieve low noise. Designed and implemented in 0.13μm SiGe BiCMOS technology and intended to interface a commercial photodiode, the receiver demonstrates state-of-the-art input-referred noise current of 1.66μArms, reveals 78dB transimpedance gain and 18.6GHz bandwidth while consuming 96mW.