Fully integrated high sensitivity pin/FET optical receiver at 250 MBAUD

Abstract

A fully integrated GaAs PIN/FET optical receiver has been fabricated and demonstrated to have a 10-9$/ BER sensitivity of -39.5 dBm at 250 MBaud and 0.845 μm; this result is within 2 dB of the theoretical prediction and comparable to the best hybrid receivers. Additionally, the theory predicts that it should be practical to improve this result by approximately 7 dB, to 380 photons/bit, using a larger input impedance. This superior performance of fully integrated receivers, compared to hybrid receivers, coupled with the lower cost, better noise immunity and packaging ease, will make them the receivers of choice for computer data links.