A 1.25 Gb/s GaAs OEIC for Gigabit Ethernet

This paper describes a monolithic GaAs OEIC optical receiver for 850 nm short wavelength Gigabit Ethernet. With a MSM (metal-semiconductor-metal) photodetector and a transimpedance amplifier (TIA), the OEIC exhibits a differential responsivity of 1.86 mV//spl mu/W, an optical modulation bandwidth of 1.0 GHz, and a DC power consumption of 135 mW. Packaged in TO-46 and combined with a commercial available post limiting amplifier, the integrated optical receiver is measured to provide sensitivity of -20.5 dBm at a bit error rate (BER) less than 1.0/spl times/10/sup -12/ under 850 nm wavelength at 1.25 Gb/s. The input overload current of the TIA is 1.25 Gb/s. This ensures the OEIC can be used when optical power is up to 0 dBm. The chip is fabricated in a 0.6 /spl mu/m ion-implanted GaAs E/D MESFET process. The die size of the OEIC is 730/spl times/600 /spl mu/m.