A 10Gb/s 6Vpp differential modulator driver in 0.18#x00B5;m SiGe-BiCMOS

摘要

Modern multi-Gb/s lightwave systems rely upon external modulators (e.g., Mach-Zehnder, MZ) that require 4 to 10Vpp swing to encode the optical carrier reliably. Commercial MZ optical modulator drivers are implemented in IC technologies with ≥5V breakdown (e.g., GaAs) [1,2], however, silicon implementations have the potential for reduced cost and greater integration density.