Horst Zimmermann

Optical Receiver IC for CD/DVD/Blue-Laser Application

An optoelectronic receiver IC for optical data storage applications is presented. The IC was developed in a 0.5 /spl mu/m BiCMOS technology with integrated PIN-photodiodes. It includes a new architecture of high-speed and low-noise transimpedance amplifiers with a gain range of 130 /spl Omega/ to 270 k/spl Omega/ programmable with a serial interface. The bandwidth is 260 MHz for highest gain which gives a gain-bandwidth-product of 70 THz/spl Omega/ and a sensitivity improvement by a factor of 2 compared to published OEICs. The amplifiers support a special write/clip mode. The output buffers are 130 /spl Omega/ impedance matched for optimized data transmission over a flex cable.

A 5-Gb/s OEIC with voltage-up-converter

In this paper (based on our previous paper at ESSCIRC 2004, A 2.4 GHz-Bandwidth OEIC with Voltage-Up-Converter, but new results for 4 Gb/s and 5 Gb/s have been added), an optoelectronic integrated circuit (OEIC) with an integrated voltage-up-converter (VUC) to enhance the frequency response of an integrated pin photodiode is presented. With the VUC a voltage of 11 V is generated on the chip without any additional external components. Thus, for a single-supply environment of 5 V the bandwidth of the OEIC is increased from 1.5 to 2.4 GHz. For data rates of 1, 3, 4, and 5 Gb/s at a bit error rate of 10/sup -9/, sensitivities of -29.3, -24.3, -22.9, and -20.5 dBm, respectively, were measured at a wavelength of 660 nm. For the implementation of the OEIC a modified 0.6-/spl mu/m silicon BiCMOS technology with f/sub T/=25 GHz is used.

A programmable OEIC for laser applications in the range from 405nm to 780nm

An OEIC with integrated PIN photodiodes for optical receiver applications like CD, DVD, HDDVD or Blu-ray, is presented. For the fast channels a maximum transimpedance of 465k/spl Omega/ or a sensitivity of 116mV//spl mu/W for 405nm with a bandwidth of 145MHz was achieved. The power consumption of 162.5mW at 5V is low enough for implementation in optical pickup units.

High-performance receivers for optical interconnects in standard MOS technology

Novel monolithic optical receivers in 0.8 micrometers standard MOS technology with NRZ data rates in excess of 531 Mb/s at 850 nm are introduced. At 638 nm the data rates are above 622 Mb/s. The innovative integrated double photodiode allowing this high speed without any modification in a CMOS process is described and results for their quantum efficiency and for their transient response are presented. Furthermore the improvement of the sensitivity of the photodiodes and the OEICs by an antireflection coating is discussed. The circuit topology of the OEICs is described. A transimpedance input stage with an active MOS feedback resistor is implemented. Analytical calculations for the bandwidth and for the effective transimpedance of the amplifiers as well as measured results are presented. Finally, an OEIC in a 1.0 micrometers CMOS technology with a polysilicon resistor instead of a MOS feedback resistor and implementing a pin photodiode achieves a data rate of 1 Gb/s for 638 nm. The sensitivity of this OEIC is improved by 9 dB m compared to that of a published OEIC.