A GaAs LD Driver IC for a 2.5 Gb/s Optical Communication System

Abstract
A large modulation current laser-diode (LD) driver IC is developed using a GaAs self-aligned gate MESFET with a 0.8 μm gate length for a 2.5 Gb/s optical communication system. The IC consists of a level shifter, a two-stage input buffer, a mark density monitor and a current driver. The current driver adjusts the modulation current over 50 mA p-p for a 25 Ω load using a current mirror circuit. The rise and fall times are 90 ps and 110 ps, respectively. This IC also has small deviation of ±0.2% of the modulation current for the ambient temperature from -20 °C to 80 °C. The dispersion penalty of a 100 km length transmission using 1.3 μm zero-dispersion fiber with an optical transmitter consisting of this IC and a MQW DFB LD is less than 0.8 dB. The IC is suitable for the practical application to 2.5 Gb/s optical communication systems.

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