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Optically clocked switched-emitter-follower THA in a photonic SiGe BiCMOS technology

Maxim Weizel, J. Christoph Scheytt, Franz X. Kärtner, and Jeremy Witzens

Open Access Open Access

Abstract

In this paper a novel opto-electronic Track-and-Hold Amplifier (OE-THA) is presented. The OE-THA can be used as a sampler in a photonic analog-to-digital-converter (ADC). It is fabricated in a silicon photonic 250 nm SiGe BiCMOS technology to allow for monolithic integration of photonic and electronic components. The OE-THA chip exhibits a small signal bandwidth of over 65 GHz, a total harmonic distortion below −34 dB up to 75 GHz and a signal-to-noise and distortion ratio (SINAD) of over 35 dB (5.5 effective bits, ENOB) up to 45 GHz. The measured resolution bandwidth products result in a corresponding equivalent jitter of below 80 fs rms from 20 to 70 GHz. The best equivalent jitter is achieved at 41 GHz with a value of 55.8 fs rms. This is enabled by using a low-jitter optical pulse train, generated by a Mode-Locked-Laser (MLL), as an optical sampling clock. The circuit integrates all optical and electronic components besides the MLL. It draws 110 mA operated from a supply voltage of −4.6 V and occupies a silicon area of only 0.59 mm2.

© 2021 Optical Society of America under the terms of the OSA Open Access Publishing Agreement

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Data availability

Design data cannot be made available due to legal restrictions from the foundry. Measurement data may be obtained from the authors upon reasonable request.

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Figures (7)
Fig. 1.
Fig. 1. Block diagram showing the individual circuit components of the silicon photonic chip. Photonic components: grating coupler (GC), taper, optical waveguides, PIN photodiode (PD), transimpedance amplifier (TIA). Electrical components: 50 Ω input buffer (InBuf), main amplifier (MA), switched-emitter-follower (SEF), output buffer (Out) and 50 Ω test buffer (Test).

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Fig. 2.
Fig. 2. Simplified schematic of the 50 Ω input stage, main amplifier and switched-emitter-follower, including the pedestal compensation.

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Fig. 3.
Fig. 3. (a) Active feedthrough attenuation circuit, (b) feed forward capacitance $C_{\textrm {ff}}$ (4-transistor network) used to compensate the base-emitter capacitance, (c) simplified schematic of the transimpedance amplifier (TIA) converting the optical pulse train to an electrical signal.

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Fig. 4.
Fig. 4. (a) Micro-photograph of the fabricated chip. Dashed squares: GC (Grating Coupler), TIA (Transimpedance-Amplifier). (b) Transient measurement setup for input frequencies above 50 GHz. From 0-50 GHz the signal generator output is directly connected to the THA input

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Fig. 5.
Fig. 5. (a) Single-ended s-parameter measurements of THA, while externally biased successively in the hold-mode (purple graph) and in the track-mode (yellow graph), (b) normalized power during track-and-hold operation calculated from spectrum-analyzer data.

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Fig. 6.
Fig. 6. (a) Single-ended real-time measurement data for different input frequencies, (b) normalized spectrum analyzer data and important figures of merit for $P_{\textrm {in}}=$ −10 dBm, $f_{\textrm {in}}=$ 19.27 GHz/43.27 GHz. Resolution and video bandwidth are set to 1 kHz.

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Fig. 7.
Fig. 7. (a) ENOB(SINAD) vs. frequency for varying input powers. The dashed lines show the 55 fs, 80 fs and 100 fs equivalent jitter limit respectively. (b) ENOB(THD) vs. frequency for varying input powers.

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Tables (1)

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Table 1. Comparison to the state of the art

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Equations (1)

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SNR = − 20 log 10 ⁡ ( 2 π f sig σ ji )
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