New OEIC photoreceiver operates up to 24 gbits/second

17 Jun 2002

Penta Researchers at the University of Michigan (Ann Arbor, MI) and AT&T; Bell Laboratories (Holmdel, NJ) have integrated a detector and amplifier in a photoreceiver chip that can accept data at speeds up to 24 Gbit/s. Current photoreceivers function around 11 Gbit/s.

According to researchers, the optoelectronic integrated circuit (OEIC) consists of a PIN-photodiode based on an InAlAs/InGaAs heterojunction bipolar transistor structure lattice-matched to an InP substrate. The photodiode is fabricated from the same InGaAs base and collector material layers used for the adjacent transistor. The OEIC photoreceiver -3-dB bandwidth is 16 GHz at1.55 mm. Total power dissipation is 34.3 mW, with a supply bias of 3.5 V. Using the device's average equivalent noise current, sensitivity is estimated at -19.9 dBm at 20 Gbit/s for a bit-error rate (BER) of 10-9. However, the researchers believe greater optical powers may be needed to achieve that BER in practice because of finite modulator bandwidth and nonideal transmitter extinction ratio.Courtesy Laser Focus World Laser Report. All rights reservedgon approves plan to purchase MD jets