A low-power 10 Gb/s AGC optical postamplifier in SiGe

A 10 Gb/s automatic gain control amplifier for use in optical receivers was implemented in a SiGe process with f/sub T/=45 GHz. Active peaking techniques were used to achieve a maximum gain of 48 dB with 7.8 GHz of bandwidth. The amplifier demonstrates less than 0.5 dB of peak-to-peak output amplitude variation over a 50 dB input amplitude range. It consumes 30 mW of power from a 3.3 V supply and remains functional at voltages as low as 2.7 V. The amplifier core occupies 0.1 mm/sup 2/ and requires no external components.