High-sensitivity BiCMOS OEIC for optical storage systems

A new BiCMOS optoelectronic integrated circuit (OEIC) for applications in advanced optical storage systems is presented. It is optimized with respect to high sensitivity and high speed. The photodiode and the amplifier are monolithically integrated on the same substrate in a commercial 0.8-(mu)m BiCMOS process. Analytical expressions for the compensation capacitors and for the bandwidth of the OEIC are derived. Neglecting antireflection coating, no process modifications are necessary to produce the integrated photodiodes. A new offset compensation scheme is implemented in the amplifiers to allow for a small chip area and low power consumption. The OEIC shows a sensitivity of 43.3 mV/(mu)W in combination with a – 3-dB bandwidth of 60.2 MHz.