DAC-Less Amplifier-Less Generation and Transmission of QAM Signals Using Sub-Volt Silicon-Organic Hybrid Modulators

Author

Wolf, Stefan ; Lauermann, Matthias ; Schindler, Philipp ; Ronniger, Gregor ; Geistert, Kristina ; Palmer, Robert ; Kober, Sebastian ; Bogaerts, Wim ; Leuthold, Juerg ; Freude, Wolfgang ; Koos, Christian

Author_Institution

Inst. of Photonics & Quantum Electron., Karlsruhe Inst. of Technol., Karlsruhe, Germany

Volume

33

Issue

7

fYear

2015

fDate

April1, 1 2015

Firstpage

1425

Lastpage

1432

Abstract

We demonstrate generation and transmission of optical signals by directly interfacing highly efficient silicon-organic hybrid (SOH) modulators to binary output ports of a field-programmable gate array. Using an SOH Mach-Zehnder modulator (MZM) and an SOH IQ modulator we generate ON-OFF-keying and binary phase-shift keying signals as well as quadrature phase-shift keying and 16-state quadrature amplitude modulation (16QAM) formats. Peak-to-peak voltages amount to only 0.27 Vpp for driving the MZM and 0.41 Vpp for the IQ modulator. Neither digital-to-analog converters nor drive amplifiers are required, and the RF energy consumption in the modulator amounts to record-low 18 fJ/bit for 16QAM signaling.

Keywords

Mach-Zehnder interferometers; amplitude shift keying; field programmable gate arrays; monolithic integrated circuits; optical communication equipment; optical modulation; quadrature amplitude modulation; quadrature phase shift keying; 16-state quadrature amplitude modulation; 16QAM; MZM; Peak-to-peak voltages; QAM optical signal DAC-less amplifier-less generation; QAM optical signal DAC-less amplifier-less transmission; RF energy consumption; SOH IQ modulator; SOH Mach-Zehnder modulator; binary phase shift keying signal; field programmable gate array; on-off keying; quadrature phase shift keying; sub-volt silicon-organic hybrid modulator; Field programmable gate arrays; Optical amplifiers; Optical fiber amplifiers; Optical modulation; Optical transmitters; Electrooptic modulation; Optical transmitters; Phase shift keying; Photonic integrated circuits; Quadrature amplitude modulation; Silicon photonics; optical transmitters; phase shift keying; photonic integrated circuits; quadrature amplitude modulation; silicon photonics;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Lightwave Technology, Journal of

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0733-8724

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/JLT.2015.2394511

Filename

7015539