A Low-Voltage 35-GHz Silicon Photonic Modulator-Enabled 112-Gb/s Transmission System

Author

Samani, Alireza ; Chagnon, Mathieu ; Patel, David ; Veerasubramanian, Venkat ; Ghosh, Samir ; Osman, Mohamed ; Qiuhang Zhong ; Plant, David V.

Author_Institution

Dept. of Electr. & Comput. Eng., McGill Univ., Montréal, QC, Canada

Volume

7

Issue

3

fYear

2015

fDate

Jun-15

Firstpage

1

Lastpage

13

Abstract

We present a silicon photonic traveling-wave Mach-Zehnder modulator operating near 1550 nm with a 3-dB bandwidth of 35 GHz. A detailed analysis of travelingwave electrode impedance, microwave loss, and phase velocity is presented. Small-and large-signal characterization of the device validates the design methodology. We further investigate the performance of the device in a short-reach transmission system. We report a successful 112-Gb/s transmission of four-level pulse amplitude modulation over 5 km of SMF using 2.2 V_{p_p} drive voltage. Digital signal processing is applied at the transmitter and receiver. 56-GBaud PAM-4 and 64-Gb/s PAM-2 transmission is demonstrated below a pre-FEC hard decision threshold of 4.4 x 10^-3.

Keywords

Mach-Zehnder interferometers; elemental semiconductors; integrated optics; microwave photonics; nanophotonics; optical modulation; optical transceivers; signal processing; silicon; PAM-2 transmission; PAM-4 transmission; Si; design methodology; digital signal processing; distance 5 km; four-level pulse amplitude modulation; frequency 35 GHz; large-signal characterization; low-voltage silicon photonic modulator-enabled transmission system; microwave loss; phase velocity; small-signal characterization; traveling-wave Mach-Zehnder modulator; traveling-wave electrode impedance; voltage 2.2 V; Capacitance; Electrodes; Impedance; Junctions; Modulation; Silicon; Substrates; Silicon nanophotonics; electro-optical systems; electrooptical systems; microwave photonics signal processing;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Photonics Journal, IEEE

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

1943-0655

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/JPHOT.2015.2426875

Filename

7096918