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8 Gbits/s inductorless transimpedance amplifier in 90 nm CMOS technology

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Abstract

This work presents the design and the measured performance of a 8 Gb/s transimpedance amplifier (TIA) fabricated in a 90 nm CMOS technology. The introduced TIA uses an inverter input stage followed by two common-source stages with a 1.5 kΩ feedback resistor. The TIA is followed by a single-ended to differential converter stage, a differential amplifier and a 50 Ω differential output driver to provide an interface to the measurement setup. The optical receiver shows a measured optical sensitivity of −18.3 dBm for a bit error rate = 10−9. A gain control circuitry is integrated with the TIA to increase its input photo-current dynamic range (DR) to 32 dB. The TIA has an input photo-current range from 12 to 500 μA without overloading. The stability is guaranteed over the whole DR. The optical receiver achieves a transimpedance gain of 72 dBΩ and 6 GHz bandwidth with 0.3 pF total input capacitance for the photodiode and input PAD. The TIA occupies 0.0036 mm2 whereas the complete optical receiver occupies a chip area of 0.46 mm2. The power consumption of the TIA is only 12 mW from a 1.2 V single supply voltage. The complete chip dissipates 60 mW where a 1.6 V supply is used for the output stages.

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Author notes

  1. Mohamed Atef

    Present address: Electrical Engineering Department, Assiut University, Assiut, Egypt

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Electrodynamics, Microwave and Circuit Engineering, Vienna University of Technology, Gusshausstrasse 25/354, 1040, Vienna, Austria

    Mohamed Atef, Francisco Aznar, Stefan Schidl, Andreas Polzer, Wolfgang Gaberl & Horst Zimmermann

Authors
  1. Mohamed Atef
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  2. Francisco Aznar
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  3. Stefan Schidl
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  4. Andreas Polzer
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  5. Wolfgang Gaberl
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  6. Horst Zimmermann
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Correspondence to Mohamed Atef.

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Atef, M., Aznar, F., Schidl, S. et al. 8 Gbits/s inductorless transimpedance amplifier in 90 nm CMOS technology. Analog Integr Circ Sig Process 79, 27–36 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10470-013-0242-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10470-013-0242-4

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