High sensitivity 12 Gb/s monolithically integrated pin-HEMT photoreceivers

The design, fabrication, and performance of a long-wavelength high-speed monolithically integrated photoreceiver suitable for receiving 12 Gb/s data is reported. The photoreceiver has been fabricated in a single growth run using lattice-matched materials on a planar InP substrate by organometallic vapor phase epitaxy (OMVPE). The circuit design employs a three-stage transimpedance preamplifier topology based on high electron mobility transistors (HEMTs) and a top-illuminated pin photodiode. The completed photoreceiver demonstrated an optoelectronic -3 dB bandwidth of 8.3 GHz, with an average input-referred noise current spectral density of 8.8 pA/Hz(1/2). Bit error rate measurements of packaged photoreceivers showed a sensitivity (at a bit error ratio of 10(-9)) of -17.7 dBm at 10 Gb/s and -15.8 dBm at 12 Gb/s, for a 2(31)-1 pattern-length pseudorandom bit stream at a wavelength of 1.55 mu m. To the author's knowledge, this is the best directly-measured sensitivity for a HEMT-based integrated photoreceiver at these bit rates.