A 20-Gb/s coaxial cable receiver analog front-end in 90-nm CMOS technology

A binary receiver analog front-end (AFE) targeting 20 Gb/s for use with coaxial cable channels is presented. To accommodate links of varying lengths, the AFE includes an analog peaking equalizer followed by a post-amplifier. The input preamplifier is important for achieving the required input sensitivity. A DC bias current is introduced through the feedback resistor in a conventional shunt-shunt feedback nMOS transimpedance amplifier (TIA) to level-shift the output, obviating a following level-shifting stage. The fabricated AFE occupies 0.89 mm2 in a 90-nm CMOS process and dissipates 138 mW from a 1.3-V supply. The AFE amplifies and opens the eye pattern of a 20-Gb/s data stream transmitted over coaxial cable with 7.5-dB loss at 10 GHz.