A 25G Burst-mode Receiver with −27.

7-dBm Sensitivity and

150-ns Response-Time for 50G-EPON Systems
Hiroaki Katsurai, Yasuhiko Nakanishi, Atsushi Kanda, Toshihide Yoshimatsu,
Shigeru Kanazawa, Masahiro Nada, Hirotaka Nakamura, and Kimikazu Sano
NTT Device Innovation Center, NTT Corporation, [email protected]

Abstract A 25Gbit/s-class burst-mode receiver for 50G-EPON systems with a 25G APD and 25G burst-
mode TIA, fabricated by 0.13-µm SiGe BiCMOS technology, achieves record high sensitivity of −27.7
dBm (OMA) at BER = 10−2 and record settling time of 150 ns.

BM-Rx are very important. High sensitivity

Introduction
improves the loss budget for long reaches and
Passive optical networks (PONs) are mainly used
high splitting ratios, and a fast response improves
to provide cost-effective broadband services to
bandwidth utilization efficiency, so a 25G BM-Rx
residential and business users. Recently, PON
with both high sensitivity and a fast response can
application to mobile networks is being
expand the 50G-EPON application area.
2020 European Conference on Optical Communications (ECOC) | 978-1-7281-7361-0/20/$31.00 ©2020 IEEE | DOI: 10.1109/ECOC48923.2020.9333406

discussed[1-2]. Fig. 1 shows a use case of the

In this paper, we report a 25G BM-Rx which
PON application to a mobile network. For such an
combines a 25G burst-mode TIA (BTIA) and a
application, a line rate of over 10Gbit/s will be
high-sensitivity 25G APD[5] to achieve the highest
needed for it[3], so IEEE and ITU-T are working to
sensitivity and the fastest response time ever.
standardize the 50G-EPON and a higher speed
PON, respectively. Circuit design
The 25-Gbit/s-class burst mode receiver (BM-Rx) A block diagram of our 25G BTIA is shown in Fig.
is a key component, and a 50G-EPON consisting 2. A large feedback resistor Rf was used to
of 25G-EPON with two wavelengths requires increase the transimpedance gain of the TIA core.
25.78125 Gbit/s. The first 25-Gbit/s-class BM-Rx It reduces noise, and hence improves sensitivity,
complying with IEEE specifications was reported but it reduces the bandwidth of the TIA core. A
in [4]. The sensitivity and response time of the large emitter-bypass-capacitor CE recovers the
degraded bandwidth but causes a series
resonance problem with a bonded ground wire.
The use of through silicon vias (TSVs) reduces
the inductance between VEE and GND (LTSV) and
avoids the resonance problem. Thus, a wide-
bandwidth and low-noise TIA core is achieved.
Series-inductor peaking is also used to enhance
the bandwidth of the BTIA. It is implemented not
only at the inter-stages of the three-stage
differential amplifier but also at the input and
output ports with impedance-matched inductors.
Fig. 1: 25G-bit/s-class PON application. The BTIA design includes the frequency-

VPD
TIA CE
RE
Core VTIA VEE
APD LTSV
RF AGC
IN OUTP
VREF S2D
TIA OUTN
Dummy 3-stage differential amplifier
Fig. 2: Block diagram of 25G BTIA.

978-1-7281-7361-0/20/$31.00 ©2020 IEEE

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response model of our 25G APD for a 25-Gbit/s- S parameters of the BTIA in combination with the
class receiver. parameters of our 25G APD. A differential
An automatic gain control circuit (AGC) adjusts transimpedance gain of 76 dBΩ with a 3-dB
the gain of the TIA core so that its output swing frequency bandwidth of 19.4 GHz was obtained.
equals that of a given reference. A single-ended Input referred noise current density was derived
to differential converter (S2D) converts the TIA from the S-parameter and noise figure
core output VTIA to a differential output. The time measurement, and was 9.8 pA/√Hz on average.
constants of the AGC loop were optimally The power consumption was 209 mW with the
designed by taking account of the tradeoff supply voltage of 3.3 V at room temperature.
between the response and tolerance to An optical receiver module was assembled by
consecutive identical digits (CIDs). connecting the BTIA and APD and mounting
them in a butterfly package, as shown in Fig. 5.
Fabrication and Characterization
The BTIA was fabricated by using 0.13-µm SiGe Experimental Results
BiCMOS technology ( fT/fmax = 200 / 265 GHz). Fig. 6 shows the experimental setup for burst bit-
Fig. 3 shows a microphotograph of the chip, error-ratio (BER) measurement of the BM-Rx. As
whose footprint is 1.31 x 0.92 mm2 . Fig. 4 shows an optical source, we used an EADFB laser with
the frequency response of the transimpedance a semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA). A
gain Zt, which we calculated from the measured 25.78125-Gbit/s burst optical signal was
generated by modulating the electro-absorption
modulator (EAM) with data signals from the pulse
pattern generator (PPG) and turning the SOA on
and off with Tx-enable signals from the PPG. By
swinging the SOA off current negatively, a high
transmitter on/off average output ratio of more
than 40 dB was obtained. Two burst signals, Tx
#1 (λ=1295 nm) and Tx #2 (λ=1300 nm), were
multiplexed and alternately input to the BM-Rx.
The optical power of Tx #1, a loud burst signal as
Fig. 3: Chip photograph (1.31 x 0.92 mm2).

90
Tc = 25 degC
80 Vcc = 3.3 V
Differential Zt (dBΩ)

70

60

50

40

30
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40
Frequency (GHz)

Fig. 4: Frequency response of BTIA. Fig. 5: Photograph of BM-Rx.

Burst BERT Tx #1
1295 nm Loud
PPG1
DFB-
BM-Rx
LD EAM SOA
O-MUX

Tx_Enable1
VOA
Tx_Enable2 Soft
DFB- APD BTIA
LD EAM SOA

PPG2
Tx #2
Error 1300 nm
Detector

EAM: electro-absorption modulator PPG: pulse pattern generator

SOA: semiconductor optical amplifier VOA: variable optical attenuator
O-MUX: optical multiplexer

Fig. 6: Setup for burst BER measurement of BM-Rx.

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 10-1 -26

Sensitivity, OMA@BER=1E-2 (dBm)

25.78125 Gbaud, NRZ, PRBS31 Continuous -26.2 25.78125 Gbaud, NRZ, PRBS31
Burst
-26.4 ER = 4.5 dB
P802.3ca, high power class
Payload Length = 576 nsec
−24.3 dBm(OMA), −6 dBm(ave) -26.6
10-2 Guard Time = 119 nsec
3.4 dB -26.8 Loud: −6 dBm
Bit Error Ratio

-27
10-3
-27.2
10-4 -27.4
-27.6
10-5
-27.8
10 -6

10-7 -28
10-8 0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800 900
10-9 Preamble Length (nsec)
10-10
10-11
10-12 Fig. 8: Settling time of BM-Rx.
-30 -28 -26 -24 -22 -20 -18 -16 -14 -12 -10 -8 -6 -4 -2
Received Optical Modulation Amplitude [dBm]
Tab. 1: Measurement results and the specs
Fig. 7: BER performance of BM-Rx. P802.3ca Our
Parameters [4]
an aggressor, was −6 dBm, and the extinction spec.1) result
ratio of Tx #2, a soft burst signal as a victim, was Trans-impedance gain
66 76
4.5 dB. (differential), Zt (dBΩ)
Fig. 7 shows the BER performance of the BM-Rx Frequency bandwidth
18 19.4
(GHz)
with built-in equalization in the error detector and Input referred noise
our target range in optical modulation amplitude current density, - 9.8
(OMA). The input optical format of the Ieq (pA/√Hz) 2)
Min. sens. (OMA)
measurement is also shown in Fig. 7. The (dBm)
−24.3 −26.0 −27.7
minimum OMA sensitivities at BER=10−2 of −27.7 Overload (Pave) (dBm) −6 > −6 > −3
dBm for continuous inputs and for burst inputs, Settling time (nsec) 800 600 150
were successfully achieved. The minimum burst 1) High-power class.
2) Average Ieq from 1 GHz to Zt.
sensitivity has a wide margin of more than 3 dB
with respect to the 25G-EPON high-power-class
specification[6]. Input overload which was more References
than −3 dBm, is also compliant with the [1] ITU-T Recommendation G.sup 66: “5G wireless
specification. fronthaul requirements in a passive optical network
context,” Oct. 2018.
We also evaluated the settling time of the BM-Rx
to burst data, as shown in Fig. 8. The BER [2] H. Uzawa et al., “First Demonstration of Bandwidth-
Allocation Scheme for Network-Slicing-Based TDM-
performance was measured with different values PON toward 5G and IoT Era,” Proc. OFC 2019, W3J.2,
of the preamble length of the soft burst signal that Mar. 2019.
followed the loud burst signal. The preamble [3] E. Harstead et al., “Technology Roadmap for Time-
length shows the settling time of the BM-Rx. It Division Multiplexed Passive Optical Networks (TDM
can be reduced to 150 ns while maintaining the PONs),” IEEE J. Lightw. Technol., Vol. 37, No. 2, pp.
657–664, Jan. 2019.
receiver sensitivity, which is much smaller than
the settling time of 800 ns, specified by the IEEE [4] N. Tanaka et al., “25.78-Gbit/s Burst-mode Receiver
for 50G-EPON OLT,” Proc. OFC 2020, M1F.5, Mar.
P802.3ca 50G-EPON Task Force[6]. 2020.
Tab. 1 summarizes the measurement results
[5] M. Nada et al., “Triple-mesa Avalanche Photodiode
compared to the specs and prior art. It shows that with Inverted P-Down Structure for Reliability and
our BM-Rx is well enough to satisfy the 50G- Stability,” IEEE J. Lightw. Technol., Vol. 32, Issue 8,
EPON requirements. pp. 1543–1548, 2014.

[6] IEEE P802.3ca, “Physical layer specifications and

Conclusions management parameters for 25 Gb/s and 50 Gb/s
passive optical networks,” D3.1, 2020.
As far as we know, we achieved a highest-
sensitivity and fastest-response 25G burst-mode
APD-TIA receiver far exceeding the IEEE
specifications. The minimum OMA sensitivities at
BER=10−2 for continuous inputs and burst inputs
are −27.7 dBm. The settling time is 150 ns. Our
receiver with these performances can expand the
50G-EPON application area.

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