A 108-Gbps, 162-mW Cherry-Hooper Transimpedance Amplifier

This paper reports an energy-efficient optical receiver based on a Cherry-Hooper emitter follower topology. Electrical measurements on a standard FR-4 PCB assembly indicate an error-free (BER <; 10
^-11
) operation up to 96 Gbps with open eye diagrams observed up to 108 Gbps. The TIA is implemented in a compact 1 mm
²
padframe in 130-nm SiGe HBT technology (fT = 300 GHz) and consumes 162 mW of DC power for a best-case energy efficiency of 1.5 pJ/bit.