GAIN ENHANCEMENT AND INPUT PARASITIC COMPENSATION IN MMIC TRANSIMPEDANCE AMPLIFIERS FOR OPTICAL RECEIVERS

A technology-independent design solution, based on inductive peaking a nd feedback techniques, is described and applied to the design of GaAs integrated amplifiers for optical receivers. Transimpedance and gain peaking amplifiers are cascaded to increase the gain and to reduce the effect of the photodetector diode parasitic capacitance on the transi mpedance bandwidth. A monolithic test vehicle of the methodology has b een realized: measured performances include a transimpedance gain of 6 5 dbQ and a bandwidth of 3.4 GHz from quasi-dc for the unloaded amplif ier. The estimated bandwidth, using a low-cost 1 pF input photodiode, is 1.9 GHz, fulfilling the system needs for 2.5 Gbit / s optical links . (C) 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.