Integrated Optical Submarine Repeater Circuits Using a High Reliability Process Technology

Repeater IC's for a high-speed optical submarine transmission system are integrated on five monolithic chips using a Si shallow junction bipolar process with 7 GHz f
T
. To achieve high reliability, a two-level metallization system using Cu-doped Al and Au//Pt/Ti with TiN diffusion barriers is employed. The gain (s
21
) and bandwidth of the equalizing amplifier IC are 65 dB and 300 MHz, respectively. The timing amplifier IC phase deviation is kept within 10°. The decision IC sensitivity is less than 6 mV. These results fully satisfy performance requirements for repeater IC's.