SILICON BIPOLAR INTEGRATED-CIRCUITS FOR MULTIGIGABIT-PER-SECOND LIGHTWAVE COMMUNICATIONS

Recent results on silicon bipolar IC’s for lightwave communications in the multigigabit-per-second range are presented. These state-of-the-art results demonstrate the inherent speed difference between the different types of basic circuits. With the fastest ones (MUX and DeMUX), bit rates above 10 Gb/s were achieved, even with production technologies. The technologies as well as circuit and design principles to achieve such high operating speeds are discussed, and some experimental examples are described in more detail. Moreover, the high-speed potential of present 1-µm silicon bipolar technologies is demonstrated by the simulation of carefully optimized communication IC’s: with most of the basic circuits, bit rates above 10 Gb/s, and in some cases even above 20 Gb/s, are achievable. © 1990 IEEE