Patent ID: 8190035

Claim:
An optical receiver comprising: a photodetector to receive from an external optical fiber an information containing optical communications signal transmitted in time spaced signal bursts and converting such signal bursts into an electrical signal; a first RF amplifier coupled to a first electrical output of the photodetector for generating a first output signal; a second RF amplifier coupled to a second electrical output of the photodetector for generating a second output signal; a capacitor having a capacitance of less than 200 pf and coupling the first electrical output to the first RF amplifier; a biasing circuit connected to said first and second RF amplifiers for reverse biasing the photodetector; a combiner circuit coupled to the output of the first and second RF amplifiers for producing an RF output signal; and a gate control that is coupled to supply a gate bias control signal to the first RF amplifier, wherein the gain of each of the first RF amplifier and the second RF amplifier is maintained at substantially the same level from approximately the beginning of a signal burst and continuing for a period of at least 100 microseconds after the beginning of the burst.