CMOS Analog Front-End Receivers for Broadband Optical Wireless Communication
Yiling Zhang, M.S. Candidate

The ever increasing demand for ubiquitous wireless connectivity coupled with the exponential growth in internet data traffic and mobile device capacity has spurred wireless network research. Optical signals as a medium for short-range broadband wireless communication has gained considerable attention offering unlimited, unregulated bandwidth channels, low transceiver complexity, power efficiency and network security. The most critical building block for optical wireless system performance in terms of speed and sensitivity is the front-end transimpedance amplifier (TIA).  For free-space communication, TIA design optimization mandates additional challenges unknown to fiber-optic receivers. This research focuses on the design and optimization of integrated optical receiver circuits in CMOS for broadband optical wireless communication considering the competing trade-offs of gain, power, dynamic range, and noise performance at multi-GHz channel bandwidths.

Publications:

Y. Zhang, V.M. Joyner, "An analog front-end receiver with desensitization to input capacitance for free-space optical communication," Proc. of IEEE Symposium on Communication Systems, Networks, and Digital Signal Processing (CSNDSP), July 2008.

Y. Zhang, V.M. Joyner, S. Deng, Z. Huang, "A 6-Gbit/s CMOS imaging diversity receiver front-end employing select-best method," Proc. IEEE Midwest Symposium on Circuits and Systems (MWSCAS), August 2008.

Y. Zhang, V.M. Joyner, R. Yun, S. Sonkusale, "A 700Mbit/s CMOS capacitive feedback front-end amplifier with automatic gain control for broadband optical wireless links," Proc. of IEEE International Symposium Circuits and Systems (ISCAS), May 2008, pp. 185-188.

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