| This thesis presents the analysis, design and implementation of a common-cathode capacitively-coupled VCSEL driver in 65nm CMOS intended for short-reach optical interconnects. The driver consists of an AC-coupled high-frequency path and a low-frequency path that provides DC signal components. By increasing the low-frequency path bandwidth by 10 times compared to previous AC-coupled drivers allowed the on-chip coupling capacitor to be reduced to 2.1pF, occupying 3 times less area than prior art. The driver introduces capacitively-coupled two-tap emphasis to equalize the VCSEL's optical response. The VCSEL was modulated with an OMA of up to 5.1dBm and an ER of 9dB, measuring an RMS jitter of 5ps at a data rate of 15Gb/s, which represents the highest OMA and ER achieved in high-speed anode-driving LDDs. The driver could be programmed for a low-power mode, outputting 2.3dBm OMA at power consumption of only 30mW, corresponding to an energy efficiency of 2pJ/bit. |
