Intersymbol interference (ISI) caused by intermodal dispersion in multimode fibers is the major limiting factor in the achievable data rate or transmission distance in high-speed multimode fiber-optic links for local area networks applications. Compared with optical-domain and other electrical-domain dispersion compensation methods, equalization with transversal filters based on distributed circuit techniques presents a cost-effective and low power solution. The design of integrated distributed transversal equalizers is described in detail with focus on delay lines and gain stages. This seven-tap distributed transversal equalizer prototype has been implemented in a commercial 0.18- m SiGe BiCMOS process for 10-Gb/s multimode fiber-optic links. A seven-tap distributed transversal equalizer reduces the ISI of a 10-Gb/s signal after 800 m of 50- m multimode fiber from 5 to 1.38 dB, and improves the bit-error rate from about 10 5 to less than 10 12.