A 10-Gbps CMOS Single Chip Optical Receiver with 2-D Meshed Spatially-Modulated Light Detector

Abstract

This paper presents a 10-Gbps optical receiver with monolithically integrated CMOS photo detector. A trans-impedance amplifier with nested feedback and shunt-peaking is proposed for broad-band and high gain operations. Incorporating a 2-D meshed spatially-modulated light detector, the optical receiver is capable of delivering 25 k Omega trans-impedance gain when driving 50 SI output loads. The operating speed is improved by 3X over the prior art with the same technology. Implemented in a generic 0.18-mu m CMOS technology, the chip size is 0.95 mm x 0.8 mm. This receiver core drains 118 mW from 1.8 V supply.