250 Mbit/s over 100 m SI-POF with RCLED source using integrated post-equaliser

Abstract

A high-speed transmission over step-index plastic optical fibre (SI-POF) using a resonant cavity light emitting diode (RCLED) is described. The integrated optical receiver is realised in 0.6 µm BiCMOS technology with an integrated large-area Si photodiode. The design consists of a TIA, equaliser and post-amplifier stage followed by a 50 Ω output driver. The integrated equaliser can be adapted via an external control voltage to different SI-POF lengths and RCLED limited bandwidths. A data rate of 250 Mbit/s can be transmitted over a 50 m-long SI-POF with a sensitivity of −22dBm at BER of 10−9 and over a 100 m-long SI-POF with a sensitivity of −24 dBm at a BER of 10−6.