A 50-Mbit/s CMOS optical transmitter integrated circuit

An integrated circuit for an optical transmitter has been designed in a standard digital 1.5-/spl mu/m CMOS technology. This production chip features a 50-MHz digital data scrambler, a trimmable temperature-compensated output current of between 50 and 80 mA, and switching times of <2 ns. Asynchronous speeds of over 200 Mb/s have been achieved. The design objectives of this integrated circuit as well as a detailed design description are given, followed by measured electrical and optical results.