A Gigabit Optical Receiver with Monolithically Integrated Photodiode in 0.18 μm CMOS

An optical receiver with monolithically integrated photodiode in a standard 0.18 mum CMOS technology is presented. At 1.2 Gbit/s, the optical sensitivity is -8 dBm for a BER of 10^-12, while the off-chip output amplitude is 500 mV_pp into a 50 Omega load. The post-amplifier can handle bitrates up to 5 Gbit/s with a BER of 10 ^-12 and a dynamic range larger than 41 dB. Current consumption of the complete receiver is 250 mA from a 1.8 V power supply. 210 mA of the total current is dissipated in the post-amplifier and output buffer.