90 Gb/s NRZ Optical Receiver in Silicon using a

Fully-Differential Transimpedance Amplifier

Joris Lambrecht, Hannes Ramon, Bart Moeneclaey, Jochem Verbist, Michiel Verplaetse, Michael Vanhoecke, Peter
Ossieur, Peter De Heyn, Joris Van Campenhout, Johan Bauwelinck, Xin Yin

Abstract— We present the design and implementation of a 90 Gb/s non-return-to-zero (NRZ) direct detection optical receiver that
consists of a low-noise transimpedance amplifier (TIA), fabricated in a 55nm SiGe BiCMOS technology, and a Ge photodiode
integrated into a silicon Photonic integrated circuit (PIC). Low-noise broadband operation is achieved using a fully differential
transimpedance amplifier that provides the photodiode reverse bias. 50 Gb/s, 56 Gb/s and 64 Gb/s NRZ operation is demonstrated
at bit-error ratios (BERs) below $10^{-12}$ at sensitivities of -12.3 dBm, -11.2dBm and -11.1dBm optical modulation amplitude
(OMA) while consuming 128mW, 141mW and 157mW respectively. Furthermore, a BER below $10^{-12}$ is achieved at 80 Gb/s
with a sensitivity of -6.1dBm (OMA) at 165mW, and operation below KP4-FEC ($2.4.10^{-4}$) is demonstrated up to 90 Gb/s with
a sensitivity of -7.1dBm (OMA) while consuming 222mW. All BERs were measured in real-time and without DSP or equalisation
to compensate the receiver. The presented receiver achieves the best reported sensitivities up to 90 Gb/s, at the second-lowest
power consumption, and is the first reported integrated optical RX up to 90 Gb/s that is tested in real-time without any
equalisation or DSP to compensate the receiver. The presented optical receiver is ideally suited for upcoming short-reach
applications.

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