A monolithically integrated 1-Gb/s silicon photoreceiver

We report a monolithically integrated optical receiver consisting of a silicon NMOS transimpedance preamplifier paired with a lateral, interdigitated p-i-n photodiode. The preamplifier achieved a bandwidth of 500 MHz, a transimpedance of 51.4 dB-/spl Omega/ and dissipated only 10.8 mW of power at a power supply voltage of 1.8 V. At a bit-error rate of 10/sup -9/, the receiver exhibited sensitivities of -22.8, -15, and -9.3 dBm at bit rates of 622 Mb/s, 900 Mb/s, and 1 Gb/s, respectively. To the best of the authors' knowledge this is the highest sensitivity at 1 Gb/s reported for a silicon monolithically integrated optical receiver.