A cable equalizer with 31 dB of adjustable peaking at 52 GHz

A differential broadband receiver equalizer targeting coaxial cable channels and data rates up to 70 Gbps was designed and fabricated in a 0.13 mum SiGe BiCMOS technology with f_T of 230 GHz and f_MAX of 280 GHz. The measured S-parameter response exhibits a single-ended peak gain of 12.2 dB at 52 GHz. The small signal frequency response is continuously adjustable to provide up to 31 dB of peaking between DC and 52 GHz. Equalization is performed at 70 Gbps for a coaxial cable with 7.2 dB of loss at 35 GHz and at 59 Gbps for a cable loss of 17.9 dB at 30 GHz. The circuit operates from 3.3 V and consumes 336.6 mW.