A 32 GHz 68 dB low-noise and balance operation transimpedance amplifier in 130nm SiGe BiCMOS for optical receivers

In this paper, a balance operation Transimpedance Amplifier (TIA) with low-noise has been implemented for optical receivers in 130 nm SiGe BiCMOS Technology, in which the optimal tradeoff emitter current density and the location of high-frequency noise corner were analyzed for acquiring low-noise performance. The Auto-Zero Feedback Loop (AZFL) without introducing unnecessary noises at input of the TIA, the tail current sink with high symmetries and the balance operation TIA with the shared output of Operational Amplifier (OpAmp) in AZFL were designed to keep balanced operation for the TIA. Moreover, cascode and shuntfeedback were also employed to expanding bandwidth and decreasing input referred noise. Besides, the formula for calculating high-frequency noise corner in Heterojunction Bipolar Transistor (HBT) TIA with shuntfeedback was derived. The electrical measurement was performed to validate the notions described in this work, appearing 9.6 pA= p Hz of input referred noise current Power Spectral Density (PSD), balance operation (VIN1 = 896 mV, VIN2 = 896 mV, VOUT1 = 1.978 V, VOUT2 = 1.979 V), bandwidth of 32 GHz, overall transimpedance gain of 68.6 dB, a total 117mW power consumption and chip area of 484 μm x 486 μm.