The increase in data rates in communication systems has been realized in recent years mainly by increasing symbol rates. This encouraged the development of fast analog-to-digital converters (ADCs) like no other circuit component in the receive path.
40 GS/s 4 bit Analog-to-Digital Converter
At the Institute of Electrical and Optical Communications Engineering (INT) a 40 GS/s 4 bit ADC in 130 nm SiGe BiCMOS was developed as part of DFG's priority program SPP1655: Wireless Ultra High Data Rate Communication for Mobile Internet Access "Wireless 100 Gb/s and beyond", sub-project "Development of Novel System and Component Architectures for Future Innovative 100 GBit/s Communication Systems"
In the baseband receiver, two of these ADCs are used to digitize the received signals. As of today (2017), the ADC is the fastest single core ADC in the world.
Publications
2020
- F. Buchali, X.-Q. Du, K. Schuh, S. T. Le, M. Grözing, and M. Berroth, “A SiGe HBT BiCMOS 1-to-4 ADC frontend enabling low bandwidth digitization of 100 GBaud PAM4 data,” Journal of Lightwave Technology, vol. 38, pp. 150–158, 2020.
- C. Carlowitz, M. Vossiek, T. Girg, M. Dietz, A.-M. Schrotz, T. Maiwald, A. M. Hagelauer, R. Weigel, H. Ghaleb, C. Carta, F. Ellinger, X.-Q. Du, M. Grözing, and M. Berroth, “SPARS — Simultaneous Phase and Amplitude Regenerative Sampling,” in Wireless 100 Gbps And Beyond, R. Kraemer and S. Scholz, Eds. Frankfurt (Oder): IHP GmbH, 2020, pp. 37–74.
2019
- X.-Q. Du, M. Grözing, A. Uhl, S. Park, F. Buchali, K. Schuh, S. T. Le, and M. Berroth, “A 112-GS/s 1-to-4 ADC front-end with more than 35-dBc SFDR and 28-dB SNDR up to 43-GHz in 130-nm SiGe BiCMOS,” in IEEE Radio Frequency Integrated Circuits Symposium (RFIC), Boston, MA, USA, 2019, pp. 215–218.
2017
- X.-Q. Du, M. Grözing, M. Buck, and M. Berroth, “A 40 GS/s 4 bit SiGe BiCMOS Flash ADC,” in IEEE Bipolar / BiCMOS Circuits and Technology Meeting (BCTM), Miami, Florida, USA, 2017, p. pp. 138––141.
Additional Information
- DFG-SPP1655
Wireless Ultra High Data Rate Communication for Mobile Internet Access „Wireless 100 Gb/s and beyond“, "SPARS - Efficient Ultra-High Speed Communication with Simultaneous Phase and Amplitude Regenerative Sampling" - DFP project M-SPARS (german)
Development of novel system and component architectures for future multi-channel 100 Gbit/s communica-tion systems (M-SPARS)
Contact

Markus Grözing
Dr.-Ing.Group Leader Integrated Circuits