High-speed monolithically integrated silicon optical receiver fabricated in 130-nm CMOS technology

A monolithically integrated silicon optical receiver fabricated in a 130-nm unmodified complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor process flow on 2-μm-thick silicon-on-insulator substrates is reported. The quantum efficiency of the photodetectors was ∼10 % at 850 nm. Sensitivities of -19, -16.6, -15.4, and -10.9 dBm were obtained for bit rates of 1, 2, 3.125, and 5 Gb/s, respectively, at a bit-error rate of 10-9. Operation up to 8 Gb/s was achieved. The transimpedance gain of the receivers was in the range 46.3 dB to 31 dB Ω, and the total dissipated power was between 10 and 35 mW depending on the circuit design.