A CMOS Optoelectronic Receiver IC with an On-Chip Avalanche Photodiode for Home-Monitoring LiDAR Sensors

This paper presents an optoelectronic receiver (Rx) IC with an on-chip avalanche photodiode (APD) realized in a 0.18-mu m CMOS process for the applications of home-monitoring light detection and ranging (LiDAR) sensors, where the on-chip CMOS P+/N-well APD was implemented to avoid the unwanted signal distortion from bondwires and electro-static discharge (ESD) protection diodes. Various circuit techniques are exploited in this work, such as the feedforward transimpedance amplifier for high gain, and a limiting amplifier with negative impedance compensation for wide bandwidth. Measured results demonstrate 93.4-dB omega transimpedance gain, 790-MHz bandwidth, 12-pA/root Hz noise current spectral density, 6.74-mu A(pp) minimum detectable signal that corresponds to the maximum detection range of 10 m, and 56.5-mW power dissipation from a 1.8-V supply. This optoelectronic Rx IC provides a potential for a low-cost low-power solution in the applications of home-monitoring LiDAR sensors.

Automated summary

This paper introduces an optoelectronic receiver IC for home-monitoring LiDAR sensors, manufactured using CMOS process with high gain and wide bandwidth. By utilizing different circuit techniques, lower power consumption and cost, as well as higher reliability and efficiency, can be achieved.