Co-design of a differential transimpedance amplifier and balanced photodetector for a sub-pJ/bit silicon photonics receiver.

This paper presents the design and implementation of a fully differential optical receiver, which is aimed for short reach intensity modulation and direct detection (IMDD) transceiver links. A Si-Ge balanced photodetector (PD) has been co-designed and packaged with a novel differential transimpedance amplifier (TIA). The TIA design is realized with a standard 28 nm CMOS process and operates with a standard digital supply (1V).