Integrated circuits for a 200 Mbit/s fiber-optic link

A set of three bipolar integrated circuits for a new fiber-optic link is described. The link operates at data rates of 5-200 Mb/s NRZ. The optical transmitter and receiver modules are compact and fit into standard 16-pin dual-in-line sockets. The power consumption of the transmitter module is 530 mW and the receiver module dissipates 310 mW. The optical loss budget is 20 dB, which is sufficient for link lengths of up to 5 or 6 km. The circuits have been designed in a 3-μm bipolar process. The chip sizes are 2 mm×1.75 mm each.