A laser source driver with adjustable amplitude and pulse-width in 130-nm CMOS technology for quantum key distribution experiments

Abstract

We present a laser source driver using a 130-nm complementary metal oxide semiconductor technology, named quantum laser source driver 2018 (QLSD2018). QLSD2018 drives the optical source with a current pulse signal, and the output of QLSD2018 has an adjustable pulse-width from 300 ps to 3.8 ns and an adjustable amplitude up to 70 mA. The data rate is up to 625 Mb/s, and the extinction ratio of the optical source (the 1550-nm distributed feedback laser or the 850-nm vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser) driven by QLSD2018 can reach 26 dB. The test results indicate that QLSD2018 can be used in quantum key distribution experiments. Using QLSD2018 on the transmitter side can significantly simplify the peripheral circuit of the optical source.