Design and experimental verification of low cost plastic optical fibre transimpedance amplifiers

Abstract

This study introduces a low-cost transimpedance amplifier (TIA) suitable for plastic optical fibre front ends. The proposed TIA is designed with some novel principles and fabricated in a low-cost 180-nm CMOS technology. The power consumption is 24 mW supplying the block with 1.8 V. An electrical test allows characterising the block under ideal conditions reaching 1 GHz bandwidth and low noise levels. An optical measurement setup is also presented, allowing checking the block performance in a controlled test ambient. This optical setup allows validating the novel design criteria as well as obtaining valuable information for future works. © The Institution of Engineering and Technology 2013.