Monolithic ultra-low-power 6 Gbit/s inductorless PRBS generator for silicon HBT-based carrier-injection electro-absorption modulator

A low-power pseudo-random bit sequence (PRBS) generator for testing a high-speed optical transmitter module has been realised in a 130 nm bipolar CMOS process. The transmitter consists of a monolithic driver circuit architecture and a heterojunction bipolar transistor (HBT)-based carrier-injection electro-absorption modulator. A 10 Gbit/s current mode logic latch with only 0.6 mW power consumption is designed by scaling down the current density without degrading the overall transmitter speed performance. The 2⁷-1 PRBS generator circuit consumes only 42.75 mW at 6 Gbit/s operating speeds with a 1.5 V dc power supply. The core circuit power consumption is 9 mW.