A 1-V CMOS front-end for high-speed 1-mm SI-POF links

This paper presents a new CMOS analog front end for short-reach high-speed optical communications that compensates the limited bandwidth of 1-mm SI-POF transmission systems and is suitable for the required large area Si PIN photodetector. The prototype contains a transimpedance amplifier, a continuous-time equalizer, and an output driver. In particular, the proposed front end has been designed using a cost-effective digital 0.18-μm CMOS technology and is fed with only 1 V, targeting gigabit transmission for simple NRZ modulation. Simulation results validate the approach for cost-effective gigabit SI-POF transmission.