A single-chip optical CMOS detector with in-situ demodulating and integrating readout for next-generation optical storage systems

In this paper, a new fully integrated detector architecture for pick-up units in optical storage systems is presented. It features a special high-frequency photodiode constellation for data recovery suitable for the needs of future optical storage systems. The functionality of standard detectors has been extended by using an additional 5 × 5 low-frequency photodiode matrix for in-situ determination of the average spatial light power distribution across the detector. The six high-frequency paths exhibit bandwidths up to 135 MHz, and the maximum clock frequency for the low-frequency paths is 20 MHz. The detector has been fabricated in a standard 0.6-μm CMOS process, and it operates at a 3.3-V power supply and occupies 1.78 × 1.58 mm².