Distortion cancellation circuitry for optical receivers

1. An optical receiver comprising:

a photodetector coupled to an external optical fiber for receiving an optical communications signal and converting it into an electrical signal;

a single ended RF amplifier with only one transistor coupled to the electrical output of the photodetector and generating an output signal with distortion;

a first inductor coupled to a first capacitor coupled to an input of the single ended RF amplifier;

a second inductor coupled to an output of the single ended RF amplifier;

a resistor having a first terminal and a second terminal, the first terminal being coupled to the input of the single ended RF amplifier;

a second capacitor having a first terminal and a second terminal, the first terminal being coupled to the second terminal of the resistor and the second terminal being coupled to the output of the single ended RF amplifier; and

a post-distortion circuit including a Schottky diode connected to the output of the RF amplifier for canceling the distortion in the output signal produced by the RF amplifier, wherein the single ended RF amplifier and the post-distortion circuit are in a single package.

2. An optical receiver as defined in claim 1 , wherein the single package is formed by an integrated chip (IC).

3. An optical receiver as defined in claim 1 , wherein the post-distortion circuit for canceling distortion further includes a varactor diode.

4. An optical receiver as defined in claim 1 , wherein the post-distortion circuit for canceling distortion includes a transistor.

5. An optical receiver as defined in claim 1 , wherein the post-distortion circuit for canceling distortion includes at least a resistor and a capacitor for adjusting magnitude, and phase content of the distortion generated by the RF amplifier.

6. An optical receiver as defined in claim 1 , further comprising means for adjusting a DC operating point of a nonlinear device in order to tune the distortion.

7. An optical receiver as defined in claim 1 , wherein the post-distortion circuit cancels both second and third order distortion.

8. An optical receiver as defined in claim 1 , wherein the single ended RF amplifier is followed by one or more amplification stages using pre and/or post-distortion.

9. An optical receiver as defined in claim 1 , wherein the single package includes a first port coupled to the first inductor for the input of the single ended RF amplifier, a second port for a gate of the only one transistor, a third port coupled to the second inductor for a drain of the only one transistor, a fourth port for a bias voltage coupled to the Schottky diode, and a fifth port for an output of the post-distortion circuit.