A 10-Gb/s AlGaAs/InGaAs p-HEMT distributed EA driver with a D-flip-flop for optical fiber links

A 10-Gb/s distributed driver (DD) IC containing a D-FF (flip-flop) function has been developed for EA (electroabsorption) modulators in optical fiber links. Despite the utilization of production-level 0.2-/spl mu/m AlGaAs/InGaAs pseudomorphic HEMTs and conventional MMIC fabrication processes, the fabricated driver IC shows good measured characteristics with an output voltage of 2.9 V/sub p-p/, a rise/fall time (tr/tf) of 22/21 ps, and a power consumption of 2.9 W at 10 Gb/s using a -5.2-V power supply. The experimental results are the first to reveal that the tr/tf is about 50% faster than those of the lumped element type driver (LE-D), which was also designed and fabricated in this study to compare with the DD´s characteristics. The output return loss of the DD is also vastly improved when compared to that of the LE-D.