An assembly of electronic components for reception of data using an optical fibre wherein said assembly comprises: a photodiode; a first amplifier coupled to said photodiode; a second amplifier, whose electrical behaviour is substantially identical to an electrical behaviour of said first amplifier; an impedance network comprising at least two electronic components coupled between an input of said second amplifier and a reference terminal, wherein those at least two electronic components comprise at least two impedance elements, one impedance element being capacitive and another being resistive or inductive, and wherein said at least two electronic components are adjustable under electronic control to adjust the impedance presented by said impedance network; and circuitry for creating a signal formed from a subtraction of outputs of the first and second amplifiers.

Frequency selective analog front-end circuitry, used to convert a sensed charge signal to an analog voltage is disclosed. In one aspect, the frequency selective analog front-end circuitry includes an op-amp having an output, an inverting input and a noninverting input, a first resistor connected between the terminal of the first capacitor and the inverting input of the op-amp, a second capacitor connected between the output of the op-amp and the inverting input of the op-amp, a second resistor connected between the output of the op-amp and the inverting input of the op-amp, a third capacitor connected between the terminal of the first capacitor and the noninverting input of the op-amp, and a third resistor connected between the noninverting input of the op-amp and a reference voltage.

An apparatus is disclosed for providing a common mode voltage to the inputs of a first differential amplifier which outputs the difference between two signals. A second differential amplifier receives the output of the first differential amplifier, and the output of the second differential amplifier is fed back to the inputs of the first differential amplifier as a common mode voltage. Since both inputs of the first differential amplifier receive the fed back common mode voltage, the first differential amplifier still outputs only the difference in the two signals, but the presence of the common mode voltage allows the first differential amplifier to operate with lower noise if the voltage levels of the inputs to the first differential amplifier vary. The second differential amplifier may be of significantly lower quality and cost than the first differential amplifier, without affecting the performance of the first differential amplifier.

A differential amplifier circuit is provided. The circuit includes a PWM modulator for generating a PWM signal representative of a difference between the first and the second staircase-like reference signals and the digital input signal, a DM-IDAC for receiving the PWM signal and providing a first and second differential mode current, a CM-IDAC for receiving the PWM signal and providing a common mode current, first and second loop integrators, and first and second comparators; each loop integrator comprising virtual ground node terminal for receiving the differential mode current, the common mode current, and a feedback signal from an output stage of the differential amplifier circuit via a feedback loop, and integrator output terminal for providing loop integrator output signal proportional to an integral of the signals received at the virtual ground node terminal, the comparators receiving the loop integrator output signal, and triangular reference signal.