A low cost digital optical receiver module for passive optical networks was developed. In order to reduce the cost of the receiver module, ICs are packaged in low cost plastic packages and the receiver module is fabricated using conventional surface mount technology. The receiver module is capable of receiving burst and packet digital optical signals, and recovered data and recovered clock in CMOS logic level are available. The receiver module contains a connectorized InGaAs PIN photodiode, a burst/packet mode-compatible preamplifier IC in a 32-lead TQFP plastic package, a comparator IC in an 8-lead SOIC plastic package, a clock recovery IC in a 32-lead TQFP plastic package and other active and passive components. These components are mounted on a four-layer printed wiring board. The intrinsic minimum receivable optical signal power is around -42 dBm/Ave and the dynamic range is over 26 dB for BER 1 × 10-8 at a bit rate of up to 60 Mb/s. The total power consumption of this module is less than 200 mW.
