Monolithic high gain DC to 10 GHz Direct Coupled Feedback Transimpedance Amplifier Using AlGaAs/GaAs HBT's

A fixed 15.5 dB gain, DC to 10 GHz transimpedance amplifier using AlGaAs / GaAs heterojunction bipolar transistor (HBT) technology is described. A 2 μm emitter non self-aligned HBT IC Process (F
_T
≈ 40 GHz, F
_max
≈ 40 GHz) with MOCVD grown layers is used to fabricate the amplifier. The 1 dB Power compression is measured to be at 4 dBm output power. The third-order intercept point (IP3) is 19 dBm at a DC Power of 156 mW. The compact chip size of 0.45*0.6 mm
²
and the excellent 15 Gb/s NRZ pulse response make the amplifier a good candidate for 15 Gb/s optical transmission systems.