A 50 Mbit/sec CMOS Monolithic Optical Receiver.

A general purpose CMOS optical receiver that operates at data rates from 1 to 50 Mbits/sec has been fabricated in a 1.75micron CMOS process. The minimum signal current for 10 sup -9 bit error rate (BER) at 50 Mbits/s has been measured to be 48 nA RMS. Automatic gain control (AGC) gives the receiver an input dynamic range of greater than 60 dB. The power dissipation is less than 500 mW when switching at maximum speed. The die area is 16 mm sup 2 .