Input amplifiers for optical PCM receivers

This paper describes the noise performance of input amplifiers for optical pulse-code-modulation repeaters. The noise is treated in terms of an effective noise generator in parallel with the photocurrent induced in the detector and the effective noise, in turn, is related to error performance. The analysis applies to both conventional and integrating front ends. Both field effect and bipolar transistor amplifiers are treated. For the latter, an optimum bias current that minimizes the effect of thermal noise is derived. Finally, predicted and measured performance are compared for silicon field-effect transistor input amplifiers at 6.3 Mb/s and 50 Mb/s, and for bipolar transistor and GaAs field-effect transistor input amplifiers at 274 Mb/s.