A 56 Gbit/s 0.35 µm SiGe Limiting Amplifier with 2.4 THz Gain-Bandwidth-Product

Author

Grözing, Markus ; Schmidt, Martin ; Berroth, Manfred

Author_Institution

Inst. of Electr. & Opt. Commun. Eng., Univ. of Stuttgart, Stuttgart, Germany

fYear

2010

fDate

3-6 Oct. 2010

Firstpage

1

Lastpage

4

Abstract

A limiting amplifier implemented in 0.35 μm SiGe-bipolar technology for bit rates up to 56 Gbit/s is presented. The amplifier input sensitivity for a bit error rate of 10^(-6) is 7 mVpp at 12.5 Gbit/s and 25 mVpp at 50 Gbit/s. The large-signal bandwidth at a sinusoidal input voltage of 56 mVrms is 41 GHz and the small-signal gain-bandwidth-product at an input voltage of 5.6 mVrms is 2.4 THz. The output differential voltage swing can be varied from 0.36 Vpp to 1.8 Vpp. The circuit can operate from a 1.9 V to 3.0 V supply and consumes 38 mW to 420 mW depending on the supply and bias control voltage. The circuit consists of a main output path and two auxiliary paths that can be controlled independently of the main one. The amplifier gain cells employ emitter followers and a differential pair amplifier without any inductive peaking.

Keywords

Ge-Si alloys; bipolar integrated circuits; differential amplifiers; error statistics; limiters; semiconductor materials; SiGe; amplifier gain cells; amplifier input sensitivity; bandwidth 2.4 THz; bandwidth 41 GHz; bias control voltage; bipolar technology; bit error rate; bit rate 56 Gbit/s; differential pair amplifier; emitter followers; inductive peaking; large-signal bandwidth; limiting amplifier; output differential voltage swing; power 38 mW to 420 mW; sinusoidal input voltage; size 0.35 mum; small-signal gain-bandwidth-product; voltage 1.9 V to 3 V; Bit error rate; Bit rate; Gain; Generators; Limiting; Sensitivity; Transistors;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Compound Semiconductor Integrated Circuit Symposium (CSICS), 2010 IEEE

Conference_Location

Monterey, CA

ISSN

1550-8781

Print_ISBN

978-1-4244-7437-0

Electronic_ISBN

1550-8781

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/CSICS.2010.5619609

Filename

5619609