Power‐efficient low‐noise 86 GHz broadband amplifier in 130 nm SiGe BiCMOS

Abstract

A power-efficient, low-noise, broadband amplifier is demonstrated in a 130 nm SiGe BiCMOS process. The circuit exhibits a 20 dB gain, 86 GHz bandwidth and consumes only 89 mW DC power, achieving a gain-bandwidth against DC power efficiency of 9.66 GHz/mW – a significant improvement over the prior art. Ultra-high data rates (>80 Gbit/s) are supported owing to a low group delay variation of ±5.9 ps up to 100 GHz. Intended as a low-noise transimpedance front-end for optical receivers, the circuit exhibits a low average input-referred-noise of 20.4 pA/√Hz, which is comparable to or better than the state-of-the-art at much lower data rates.