A 50 Gb/s Linear Driver in 0.13 μm SiGe BICMOS Technology for Mach-Zehnder Modulators

In this paper, a linear driver for travelling wave electrode (TWE) Mach-Zehnder Modulators (MZM) in 0.13 μm SiGe BICMOS technology is presented. The driver is implemented by a six-stage distributed differential amplifier. To drive a specified MZM with 33 Ω impedance, the driver delivers a differential output signal of 3 Vpp, exhibits a small-signal gain of 13 dB and 3-dB bandwidth of over 40 GHz. The driver works from a 6 V supply with a power consumption equal to 720 mW. Post layout simulation results show good eye diagrams of 50 Gbps NRZ and 50 GBps PAM-4 (100 Gbps) signals. The physical layout occupies an area of 1.82 × 0.71 mm
²
.