Broadband peaking techniques for HEMT-based monolithic transimpedance amplifiers

This paper describes the design and performances of a multigigabit optical front-end circuit. A new inductor-peaking technique has been applied to a G aAs MMIC transimpedance preamplifier realized in pseudomorphic HEMT technol ogy. The peaking circuit is capable of resonating the total input parasitic capacitance in a wide range of values: photodetector parasitic capacitance values between 0.1 and 0.8 pF allow -3 dB bandwidths from 5.2 to 7.2 GHz. Typical performances include a transimpedance gain of 57 dB circle dot Omeg a and an input-equivalent noise current density of about 7 pA/root Hz. Such an MMIC can be successfully adopted for optical receivers transmitting NRZ signals in excess of 7 Gbits/s. (C) 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.