Complete monolithic integrated 2.5 Gbit/s optoelectronicreceiverwithlarge area MSM photodiode for 850 nm wavelength

A novel optoelectronic receiver chip for a data rate of 2.5 Gbit/s has been developed and tested. It integrates a metal-semiconductor-metal photodiode with a GaAs HEMT transimpedance amplifier, a high gain amplifier and a limiting output buffer which is able to drive a 50 Ω load. A special feature of the chip is that it comprises a very large photodiode of 300 µm diameter, eliminating the need for expensive fibre alignment. Measurements reveal that the receiver achieves the required sensitivity of –15.7 dBm at a bit error rate of 10-9.