Silicon Electro-optic Modulator for Photonic Ring Network On-Chip Based on Dual ITO Layer Directional Coupler

Abstract

AbstractAs a key component of the Photonic network on chip (PNoC). The electro-optic modulator converts the electrical signal of the processor into optical signal, which is transmitted in the PNoC. The performance of the PNoC is directly affected by the property of the electro-optic converter. A novel electro-optic (EO) modulator adopt dual ITO layers directional coupler is proposed in this paper. Utilizing double layer ITO activation materials Designed a photonic electro-absorption (EA) ITO modulator, it has a double-waveguide structure on both sides, and electro-optic modulation is realized by the EA effect of the ITO surface plasma in the middle island. Due to the double waveguide structure, this EO modulator is extremely suitable for on-chip optical network processor of exceptional architecture, for example, the PRNoC (Photonic Ring Network-on-Chip). We simulated the component adopting FDTD (finite time domain difference method) software. Simulation results and analysis show that the coupling ratio at the input of the modulator is up to 52%, and the extinction ratio (ER) of the EO modulator is −14.2 dB, and the insertion loss (IL) is less than 1.0 dB. The modulator is compact footprint only 9 μm × 1.4 μm, the bandwidth up to 0.4963T bit/S, and the power consumption per bit is 4.354 fJ/bit.KeywordsPhotonic network on-chipSPPSilicon electro-optic modulatorTCO