PRESENT STATUS AND FUTURE PROSPECTS OF HIGH-SPEED LIGHTWAVE ICS BASED ON INP

High-speed integrated circuits (ICs) are essential for expanding the capacity of light-wave communications. InP-based heterostructure field effect transistors (HFETs) and heterojunction bipolar transistors (HBTs) are very promising for producing high-speed digital and analog ICs. This paper reviews the current status of InP-based lightwave communication ICs in terms of device, circuit, and packaging technologies. A successful 40-Gbit/s, 300-km optical fiber transmission using InP HFET ICs demonstrates the feasibility of the ICs. Furthermore, we estimate future IC performance based on the relationship between electron device figures-of-merit and IC speed. To keep up with the performance trend, technological problems, like inter- and intra-chip interconnections, have to be solved.

[1]  K. Hagimoto.  Experimental 10 Gbit/s transmission systems and its IC technology , 1993, 15th Annual GaAs IC Symposium.

[3]  Josef Bock,et al.  46 Gb/s DEMUX, 50 Gb/s MUX, and 30 GHz static frequency divider in silicon bipolar technology , 1996 .

[4]  M. Kawachi,et al.  160 Gbit/s soliton data transmission over 200 km , 1995 .

[5]  Noboru Ishihara,et al.  Over-10-Gb/s IC's for future lightwave communications , 1994 .

[6]  M. Vadipour.  Capacitive feedback technique for wide-band amplifiers , 1993 .

[7]  April Brown,et al.  50-nm self-aligned-gate pseudomorphic AlInAs/GaInAs high electron mobility transistors , 1992 .

[8]  E. Sano,et al.  InP/InGaAs double-heterostructure bipolar transistors for high-speed ICs and OEICs , 1995 .

[9]  A. J. Barlow,et al.  Effect of surface voids on the precise determination of the velocity of ultrasound in solids , 1967 .

[10]  Hans-Martin Rein,et al.  Design considerations for very-high-speed Si-bipolar IC's operating up to 50 Gb/s , 1996, IEEE J. Solid State Circuits.

[11]  Z.-G. Wang,et al.  Low power data decision IC for 20-40 Gbit/s data links using 0.2 /spl mu/m AlGaAs/GaAs HEMTs , 1996 .

[12]  D. Rensch,et al.  39.5-GHz static frequency divider implemented in AlInAs/GaInAs HBT technology , 1992, GaAs IC Symposium Technical Digest 1992.

[13]  Y. Imai,et al.  Over-30-GHz limiting amplifier ICs with small phase deviation for optical communication systems , 1996 .

[14]  Hamano Hiroshi,et al.  20 Gbit/s AlGaAs/GaAs-HBT 2:1 selector and decision ICs , 1991 .

[15]  Wolfgang Bronner,et al.  45 Gbit/s AlGaAs/GaAs HEMT multiplexer IC , 1997 .

[16]  T. Shibata,et al.  A design technique for a 60 GHz-bandwidth distributed baseband amplifier IC module , 1994 .

[17]  Kimikazu Sano,et al.  ULTRA-FAST OPTOELECTRONIC CIRCUIT USING RESONANT TUNNELLING DIODES AND UNI-TRAVELLING-CARRIER PHOTODIODE , 1998 .