Silicon-Based Microring Resonator Modulators for Intensity Modulation

Author

Zhang, Lin ; Li, Yunchu ; Yang, Jeng-Yuan ; Song, Muping ; Beausoleil, Raymond G. ; Willner, Alan E.

Author_Institution

Dept. of Electr. Eng., Univ. of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA

Volume

16

Issue

1

fYear

2010

Firstpage

149

Lastpage

158

Abstract

We numerically analyze the characteristics of silicon-based microring modulators consisting of a single-ring resonator. Performance of the devices as digital intensity modulators is examined in terms of extinction ratio, pulsewidth, frequency chirp, spectral broadening, and signal quality. Three types of the modulators built in single-waveguide under-/overcoupling and dual-waveguide configurations are discussed. We show that cavity dynamics significantly affect the modulation properties. Data transmission performance over single-mode fibers is also presented. A silicon microring modulator with negative chirp could achieve 0.8 dB power penalty in 80-km fiber transmission without dispersion compensation.

Keywords

data communication; intensity modulation; optical modulation; silicon; spectral line broadening; Si; data transmission; digital intensity modulation; dual waveguide; frequency chirp; pulsewidth; signal quality; silicon based microring resonator modulators; single ring resonator; spectral broadening; Fiber-optic communication; microring resonator; modulator; on-chip photonic interconnect; silicon photonics;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Selected Topics in Quantum Electronics, IEEE Journal of

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

1077-260X

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/JSTQE.2009.2027816

Filename

5256200