Low noise fibre optic receiver operating from 2 to 20 GHz

A wideband optical receiver has been designed and fabricated. The gain with respect to 50 Omega is 12 dB from 2 to 20 GHz, and the noise spectral density is a maximum of 10 pA/ square root Hz between 6 and 18 GHz. The noise, gain and flatness performances of this GaAs MMIC-based receiver match the equivalent achieved experimentally using highly optimised discrete components, but using a manufacturable process. >