Low power 13 Gbit/s VCSEL current driver in 0.18 μm CMOS for optical interconnection

A design of 13 Gbit/s vertical cavity surface emitting laser (VCSEL) driver using 0.18 μm complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) technology is presented in this paper. The core unit of the driver consists of pre-amplify stage and output stage circuit. Techniques of three stages differential amplifier with low impedance load and active feedback are employed in pre-amplify stage, and technique of C3A is adopted in output stage to acquire low power consumption and high speed. The experimental results show that the circuit can work at the data rate of 10 Gbit/s and maximum of 13.2 Gbit/s. The output modulation current is up to 12.5 mA and the power dissipation is only 68 mW with a 1.8 V power supply.