0.5 /spl mu/m GaAs MESFET 4.2 mW ultra-low power decision circuit for optical communications with 0.1 /spl mu/m CMOS and HBT implementation

摘要

The design specifications considering low-power and high-speed are presented. Several decision circuits for an optical communication receiver system, are designed and simulated using AIM-SPICE circuit simulation tools, based on extracted process parameter using an in-house characterization and modeling tool named CMLEE. Several circuits using 2/spl times/4 emitter-area HBT, 0.5 /spl mu/m MESFET and compatible 0.1 /spl mu/m CMOS technology are designed and simulated for the output node waveform and power consumption. All the waveform simulations showed good performance at 10 Gbps. It is observed that the 0.1 /spl mu/m CMOS circuits of current mainstream electronic systems shows more than a 10 GHz operation, opening an opportunity for high frequency as long as deep sub-/spl mu/m technology compromises maturity and cost in reality. In terms of power consumption, the sub-half 0.5 /spl mu/m GaAs MESFET at 4.2 mW is the best choice for the same 10 GHz speed performance, compared to 60 mW by the 0.1 /spl mu/m CMOS circuit.