A 50 Gb/s NRZ Optical Modulator Driver Circuit in 0.18 μm SiGe BiCMOS Technology

Herein, we propose a 50 Gb/s non-return-to-zero optical modulator driver circuit in 0.18 μm SiGe BiCMOS technology. This modulator driver circuit including a pre-driver and a main driver was designed as a full-differential circuit. For the driver circuit, the bandwidth is 28.4 GHz, the voltage gain is 12.1 dB, the maximum differential output swing is 2 Vppd, and the chip area is 1.064➨1.067 mm2. The driver circuit can be applied in a high-speed micro-ring modulator with low driving voltage.