Abstract:
This work presents a 48-Gb/s four-level pulse amplitude modulation (PAM-4) optical receiver (ORX) with a linear analog front-end (AFE) and an integrated sampler. The AFE employs a transadmittance-stage transimpedance-stage (TAS-TIS) topology, replacing conventional CML-based variable gain amplifiers (VGAs) and post-amplifiers, avoiding continuous-time linear equalizers and passive inductors while preserving …