Optical receiver IC for CD/DVD/blue-laser application

In this paper, an optoelectronic receiver IC for CD, DVD, and Blue-Laser optical data storage applications is presented. The IC was developed in a 0.5-μm BiCMOS technology with integrated PIN photodiodes. It includes a new architecture of high-speed and low-noise variable gain transimpedance amplifiers witch current preamplifier input. The amplifier transimpedance gain is programmable over a gain range of 130 Ω to 270 kΩ by a serial interface. The amplifier small-signal bandwidth is 260 MHz for the highest gain, which gives a gain-bandwidth product of 70 THzΩ and a sensitivity improvement by a factor of 2 compared to published OEICs. The amplifiers support a special write/clip mode which realizes a nonlinear gain reduction for high input signals. The output voltage buffers are 130-Ω impedance matched for optimized data transmission over a flex cable. The impedance is generated by active-impedance synthesis to increase the output dynamic range.