15 Gbit/s silicon bipolar amplifier ICusing a novel mounting technique

Abstract
A DC-coupled silicon bipolar amplifier IC, for operation in future multigigabit optical communication systems, has been fabricated using ≥30 GHz double-polysilicon transistors. Using a novel HF-connection technique for reducing the bondwire inductance, we have succeeded in the fabrication of a 14 dB gain amplifier IC, with a flatness better than ±0.5 dB, combined with a –3 dB bandwidth of 12.8 GHz. This is the highest bandwidth ever reported for a bonded amplifier circuit in any semiconductor technology.