Abstract

Recently, application areas of laser diodes in communication systems have expanded into data communication, such as channel; peripheral interfaces, local area networks, and so on, because prices of laser diodes have been reduced remarkably. For these, network topology, transmission distance, quality of the optical fiber, and output power of the transmitter greatly vary, so that the receivers have to accept a wide range of optical input power. Therefore, the specification of these devices requires the receiver performance not only to have high sensitivity and high speed but also an extremely wide dynamic range, which is difficult to achieve even with today's hybrid IC technology.·^1-4 We have successfully developed a GaAs preamplifier IC with novel variable transimpedance function, which has both high sensitivity and a wide dynamic range.

© 1992 Optical Society of America