Transimpedance preamplifier with 70 dB AGC range in fine line NMOS.

We present the test results for an NMOS transimpedance preamplifier with 50 Ohm drive capability and built in AGC function. Measurements at 0.88 Gb/s using lambda = 1.3micron and a PIN photodiode yield an etaP bar of -26 dBm with BER = 10 sup (-9). We also propose a method to estimate the receiver sensitivity from noise figure measurements. This provides a relatively simple complementary technique to optical bit error rate measurements.