A high speed GaAs error-detection circuit for fiber-optic transmission systems

A high-speed GaAs IC for detection of line code vibrations is described. This 144-gate error-detection circuit for monitoring a high-bit-rate fiber-optic link has been designed and fabricated using a high-yield titanium tungsten nitride self-aligned gate MESFET process. This process routinely provides a wafer-averaged gate delay (fan-in=fan-out=2) of less than 70 ps with a power dissipation of 0.5 mW/gate. The error-detection circuits were tested on-wafer using high-frequency probe cards at a clock rate of 1.4 GHz, with a yield of 64%. Packaged circuits worked at a clock frequency of over 2.5 GHz and consumed 200-mW power at a fixed power supply voltage of 1.5 V. The circuits operate over a wide variation in power supply voltage and temperature. When operated at a package temperature of 125°C, the circuits show less than a 12% degradation in their maximum clock frequency. The circuit was inserted into a 565-Mb/s system currently using a silicon ECL part, and full functionality was verified with no necessary modifications