A 17-Gb/s low-power optical receiver using a Ge-on-SOI photodiode with a 0.13- μm CMOS IC

We report the fastest (17Gb/s) and lowest-voltage (1.8V) all-silicon CMOS optical receiver to date, based on a germanium-on-SOI photodiode. The 12.5-Gb/s sensitivity at 850nm is -12.7dBm (BER=10
^-12
), with a power consumption as low as 50mW.