Speed-enhanced integrated optical sensor with area-reduced regulated-voltage up-converter

The bandwidth of the photodiode in an optoelectronic integrated sensor circuit with a single 5-V supply is increased from 20 to 770 MHz by an on-chip voltage up-converter. A shunt-regulator is implemented to keep the die area small and to best exploit the breakdown voltages of available devices. Rise and fall times below 0.49 ns are achieved enabling operation at data rates in excess of 1 Gbit/s. A possible receiver sensitivity of -22.5 dBm results for a wavelength of 670 nm with an additional external capacitor of 10 nF. Without an external capacitor, a sensitivity of -22.15 dBm is obtained.