A low-noise broad-band GaAs MESFET monolithic distributed preamplifier

It is shown that the equivalent input noise current density of a distributed preamplifier of an optical receiver can be improved by using large gate, line matching impedance. A monolithic GaAs MESFET distributed preamplifier, utilizing this design consideration, was fabricated. Using a 35 μm InGaAs p-i-n photodiode, it was shown to have an equivalent input noise current density of 8 pA//spl radic/(Hz) and an 8 GHz bandwidth. To date, this is the best known result for a 0.8 μm GaAs MESFET process.