Abstract
Optical links are moving to higher and higher transmission speeds while shrinking to shorter and shorter ranges where optical links are envisaged even at the chip scale. The scaling in data speed and span of the optical links demands modulators to be concurrently performant and cost-effective. Silicon photonics (SiPh), a photonic integrated circuit technology that leverages the fabrication sophistication of complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor technology, is well-positioned to deliver the performance, price, and manufacturing volume for the high-speed modulators of future optical communication links. SiPh has relied on the plasma dispersion effect, either in injection, depletion, or accumulation mode, to demonstrate efficient high-speed modulators. The high-speed plasma dispersion silicon modulators have been commercially deployed and have demonstrated excellent performance. Recent years have seen a paradigm shift where the integration of various electro-refractive and electro-absorptive materials has opened up additional routes toward performant SiPh modulators. These modulators are in the early years of their development. They promise to extend the performance beyond the limits set by the physical properties of silicon. The focus of our study is to provide a comprehensive review of contemporary (i.e., plasma dispersion modulators) and new modulator implementations that involve the integration of novel materials with SiPh.
Highlights
This paper aims to provide a comprehensive review of the new technologies that provide additional, viable routes to enhance the performance of Silicon photonics (SiPh) modulators
The integration of new materials provides routes for optically broadband and energy-efficient high-speed modulation with little or no current flow.[176,181,184,188,202]. In some cases, these new materials provide an excellent decoupling between amplitude and phase modulation, which is difficult to achieve with contemporary all-silicon plasma dispersion modulation schemes.[174,178,184]
By achieving a high level of technological maturity, graphene has the potential to provide devices that can work over a wide range of wavelengths due to its gapless band structure, miniaturized devices due to its large EO efficiency, feasibility for BEOL integration with the SiPh fabrication process, and a possibility to offer a complete platform for communication applications, as graphene possesses properties for efficient modulation and detection
Summary
High-speed transceivers for short-reach (few cm to few tens of km) and long-haul optical communication links require high-performance modulators in their transmitter optical subassembly.[1,2,3] The key performance parameters for an efficient modulator are (a) high modulation efficiency[4,5,6,7,8,9] in amplitude or phase by a drive signal that is compliant with the complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) circuitry5,6 [for phase modulators, the modulation efficiency is defined as the product. The discussion in this paper is limited to C-band and O-band implementations of SiPh modulators for telecommunication and data communication applications; though SiPh modulators are reported for mid-infrared (mid-IR) wavelengths[214,215] and for non-telecom/ datacom applications.[215]
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary 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.
