Investigation and optimization of an adaptive integrated high bandwidth driver for high speed optical / electrical interconnection

In this paper, the design, development and realization of a high bandwidth integrated driver in a high speed opto-electrical transmitter with high performance and a compact size is investigated. Using a differential fractionally spaced transversal filter topology, the circuit consists of an input and output buffer, variable gain amplifiers and multi-tap delay cells. In this work, micro-strip transmission lines are utilized as the delay cells, while adaptive gilbert cells are employed as the variable gain amplifiers in the adaptive transmitter to improve the system-level performance by compensating the frequency-dependent channel and package loss. Both frequency-domain and transient simulation of the high speed transmitter are analyzed and compared, in order to validate the integrated electrical models and interconnect characteristics.