A 3.3-V, 500-Mb/s/ch parallel optical receiver in 1.2-μm GaAs technology

• Published in: IEEE journal of solid-state circuits Vol. 33; no. 12; pp. 2197 - 2204
• Main Authors: Jungwook Yang, Joongho Choi, Kuchta, D.M., Stawiasz, K.G., Pepeljugoski, P., Ainspan, H.A.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: 01-12-1998
• ISSN: 0018-9200
• DOI: 10.1109/4.735704

A 20-channel parallel optical receiver has been developed that achieves the data transfer rate of 1 GByte/s. Each channel takes a dc-coupled optical input and can be driven by a 250 MHz clock to have a data rate of 500 Mb/s/channel. This parallel optical receiver IC is an integral part of a low cost optical bus technology which was demonstrated to be cost competitive with copper interconnect technology. The power supply is 3.3 V to be compatible with system supply. The control inputs are CMOS logic compatible and data outputs are compatible with IEEE low-voltage differential signals. The chip has been fabricated in a 1.2 mu m GaAs MESFET technology.