Design of 12-channel 120Gb/s laser diode driver array in 0.18µm CMOS technology

Abstract

A 12-channel 120Gb/s laser diode driver array has been designed in 0.18μm CMOS technology. Under a supply voltage of 1.8V, simulated results show that a single channel has a speed of 10Gb/s at a power consumption of 98mW. A total capacity of 120 Gb/s can be obtained from 12 channels. With three stages of differential amplifiers directly coupled, the single channel amplifier can supply the current up to 26mA adopting negative feedback and capacitive coupled current amplifier (C 3 A) structure. The adjustable modulation current from 1mA to 16mA and the bias current up to 10mA can be generated from this driver circuit. The layout area of the driver array is 3205μm×506μm. This design can be used in high speed optical chips. Keywords-laser diode driver array; 12 channels; C 3 A; active negative feedbackI.

A CMOS Current-Mode Vertical-Cavity-Semiconductor-Emitting-Laser Diode Driver for Short-Range LiDAR Sensors

“…Ref. [ 9 ] suggested a 12-channel laser diode driver array, where each channel could provide modulation currents of 1~16 mA pp with variable bias currents of 1~10 mA. Still, high power consumption was indispensable.…”

“…Since the common-anode VCSEL diode can be externally biased with an elevated voltage, the supply voltage of the VCSEL driver chip can be effectively reduced. This configuration substantially reduces power consumption, thus presenting an efficient method to drive VCSELs [ 9 ]. Nonetheless, it is crucial to note that the adoption of common-anode VCSEL diodes mandates an additional supply voltage, which is troublesome in practice.…”