Design of Low-Cost Transimpedance Amplifier for Optical Receiver

The transimpedance amplifier (TIA) is the most favorable and efficient choice for the front-end preamplifier in optical fiber communication systems. High gain and low input noise to amplify weak and susceptible input signals are the two major advantages of TIAs. Moreover, to realize a low-cost solution, a TIA should be implemented in a complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS) process and should occupy a small area. This paper presents a low-cost TIA for optical receivers in a 180-nm CMOS process. The proposed TIA combines both open-loop and closed-loop topologies. A capacitance isolation method is used for noise and bandwidth optimization. Finally, capacitive peaking is used for bandwidth enhancement. Moreover, the proposed TIA is designed without using any inductors for bandwidth enhancement as well as for reducing chip area. Simulation results show that the proposed TIA works up to a frequency of 2.2 GHz with a transimpedance gain of 54.4 dBΩ. The TIA consumes only 19.7 mW with a supply voltage of 1.8 V, and the active area of the proposed circuit is only 0.003 mm2. © 2018, The Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers.