High-Speed Transmitters in 90nm CMOS for High-Density Optical Interconnects

Author

Palermo, Samuel ; Horowitz, Mark

Author_Institution

Comput. Syst. Lab., Stanford Univ.

fYear

2006

fDate

19-21 Sept. 2006

Firstpage

508

Lastpage

511

Abstract

Small, high-speed and low power optical transmitter circuits are needed for optical interconnects to play a role in improving chip I/O bandwidth. This paper demonstrates two different transmitter designs fabricated in a 1V 90nm CMOS technology, one suitable for driving vertical cavity surface emitting lasers (VCSELs) and the other for driving multiple quantum well modulators (MQWMs). A four-tap current summing FIR equalizer extends VCSEL data rate for a given average current. It consumes 80mW at 18Gb/s operation and occupies 0.03mm² area. The MQWM transmitter has a pulsed-cascode output stage capable of supplying a voltage swing of twice the 1V supply without overstressing thin-oxide core devices. It consumes 38mW at 16Gb/s and occupies 0.014mm² area

Keywords

CMOS integrated circuits; equalisers; integrated optoelectronics; modulators; optical interconnections; optical transmitters; quantum well lasers; surface emitting lasers; 1 V; 16 Gbit/s; 18 Gbit/s; 38 mW; 80 mW; 90 nm; CMOS technology; FIR equalizer; MQWM transmitter; VCSEL; chip I/O bandwidth; high-density optical interconnects; high-speed transmitters; multiple quantum well modulators; optical transmitter circuits; pulsed-cascode output stage; thin-oxide core devices; vertical cavity surface emitting lasers; Bandwidth; CMOS technology; Circuits; Optical design; Optical interconnections; Optical transmitters; Quantum well devices; Quantum well lasers; Surface emitting lasers; Vertical cavity surface emitting lasers;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Solid-State Circuits Conference, 2006. ESSCIRC 2006. Proceedings of the 32nd European

Conference_Location

Montreux

ISSN

1930-8833

Print_ISBN

1-4244-0303-0

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/ESSCIR.2006.307501

Filename

4099815