Abstract
We demonstrate a small foot print (600 nm wide) 1D silicon photonic crystal electro-optic modulator operating with only a 50 mV swing voltage and 0.1 fJ/bit switching energy at GHz speeds, which are the lowest values ever reported for a silicon electro-optic modulator. A 3 dB extinction ratio is demonstrated with an ultra-low 50 mV swing voltage with a total device energy consumption of 42.8 fJ/bit, which is dominated by the state holding energy. The total energy consumption is reduced to 14.65 fJ/bit for a 300 mV swing voltage while still keeping the switching energy at less than 2 fJ/bit. Under optimum voltage conditions, the device operates with a maximum speed of 3 Gbps with 8 dB extinction ratio, which rises to 11 dB for a 1 Gbps modulation speed.
Highlights
Silicon photonics is proving to be a promising future choice of technology for the development of generation computers designed to meet the continuously growing demand for larger bandwidths and higher data processing speeds, thanks to the significant improvements in the performance of the individual components of a silicon photonic link [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11]
In addition to the switching energy, the DC energy consumption is significantly reduced and we demonstrated a total energy consumption of 14.65 fJ/bit at 2 Gbps for optimum voltage conditions (Vpp = 300 mV, Vtop = 1.0 V)
extinction ratio (ER) is improved compared with previously reported cavity based carrier injection silicon EO modulators [4,5,6,7]
Summary
Silicon photonics is proving to be a promising future choice of technology for the development of generation computers designed to meet the continuously growing demand for larger bandwidths and higher data processing speeds, thanks to the significant improvements in the performance of the individual components of a silicon photonic link [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11]. After photonic-electronic integration the external energy requirement increases greatly due to the complex electronic circuitry, the need for amplifiers and a large transient energy [11, 17,18,19] With this in mind, efforts have been made to reduce the switching voltage of silicon EO modulators and the most notable demonstration in this regard has been a carrier injection ring resonator modulator operating with a 150 mV swing voltage but still with a high switching energy of 7.9 fJ/bit [6]. The combination of a low resistance and capacitance and a high Q-factor enables us to demonstrate a silicon EO modulator operating with a sub-100-mV swing voltage that leads to an ultra-small switching energy at GHz speeds. The device operates with a high extinction ratio (ER) that scales with the applied swing voltage and can achieve ER > 10 dB for 1 Gbps
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
