A 56-Gb/s Optical Receiver With 2.08-μA Noise Monolithically Integrated into a 250-nm SiGe BiCMOS Technology

In this article, a monolithically integrated single-polarization optical receiver with automatic gain control is presented that shows state-of-the-art performance in terms of bandwidth (BW) and noise. A low-noise technique is applied in a monolithically integrated optical receiver featuring automatic gain and dc-offset cancellation control loops. The electronic and photonic components are fabricated on the same silicon substrate using IHP's 0.25-μm SiGe BiCMOS EPIC technology. The optical receiver features a high tunable transimpedance gain of 66 dBΩ at a large optoelectrical BW of 34 GHz and an input-referred noise current of 2.08 μA $_{rms}$ while consuming only 205 mW of power.