Design, modeling, and characterization of monolithically integrated InP-based (1.55 mu m) high-speed (24Gb/s) p-i-nMBT front-end photoreceivers

Abstract

High-speed, long-wavelength InAlAs/InGaAs OEIC photoreceivers based on a p-i-n/HBT shared layer integration scheme have been designed, fabricated and characterized. The p-i-n photodiodes, formed with the 6000 Angstrom-thick InGaAs pre-collector layer of the HBT as the absorbing layer, exhibited a responsivity of similar to 0.4 A/W and a -3 dB optical bandwidth larger than 20 GHz at lambda = 1.55 mu m. The fabricated three-stage transimpedance amplifier with a feedback resistor of 550 Omega demonstrated a transimpedance gain of 46 dB Omega and a -3 dB bandwidth of 20 GHz. The monolithically integrated photoreceiver with a 83 mu m(2) p-i-n photodiode consumed a small de power of 35 mW and demonstrated a measured -3 dB optical bandwidth of 19.5 GHz, which is the highest reported to date for an InAlAs/InGaAs integrated front-end photoreceiver. The OEIC photoreceiver also has a measured input optical dynamic range of 20 dB. The performance of individual devices and integrated circuits was also investigated through detailed CAD-based analysis and characterization. Transient simulations, based on a HSPICE circuit model and previous measurements of eye diagrams for a NRZ 2(31)-1 pseudorandom binary sequence (PRBS), show that the OEIC photoreceiver is capable of operation up to 24 Gb/s.