Silicon Microring Modulator Research Articles

Silicon-Wire Waveguide Based External Cavity Laser for Milliwatt-Order Output Power and Temperature Control Free Operation with Silicon Ring Modulator

We report a novel hybrid laser based on a silicon-wire external cavity filter. We characterize the hybrid silicon laser from the viewpoint of high output extraction efficiency and temperature control free operation with a silicon microring resonator. First, it is experimentally verified that output extraction efficiency of the laser is significantly improved by locating an optical coupler within the laser cavity. As a result, we show mW-order output power and wall-plug efficiency of ∼0.9%. In addition, we demonstrate that the operating window of the silicon microring modulator is adaptable to the oscillation wavelength of the hybrid silicon laser in regard to temperature change of a silicon substrate from 25 to 55 °C.

Error-free transmission of microring-modulated BPSK

We demonstrate the generation of error-free binary-phase-shift-keyed (BPSK) data at 5 Gb/s using a silicon microring modulator. The microring-modulated BPSK signal is propagated at fiber lengths up to 80 km, maintaining error-free performance, while demonstrating resilience to chromatic dispersion. Bit-error-rate measurements and eye diagrams show near equivalent performance of a microring-based BPSK modulator as compared to commercial LiNbO₃ phase modulators.

25 Gbit/s silicon microring modulator based on misalignment-tolerant interleaved PN junctions

A high-speed depletion-mode silicon-based microring modulator with interleaved PN junctions optimized for high modulation efficiency and large alignment tolerance is demonstrated. It is fabricated using standard 0.18 μm complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor processes and provides low V(π)L(π)s of 0.68 V·cm to 1.64 V·cm with a moderate doping concentration of 2 × 10(17) cm(-3). The measured modulation efficiency decreases by only 12.4% under ± 150 nm alignment errors. 25 Gbit/s non-return-zero modulation with a 4.5 dB extinction ratio is experimentally realized at a peak-to-peak driving voltage of 2 V, demonstrating the excellent performance of the novel doping profile.

Wafer-Level Testable High-Speed Silicon Microring Modulator Integrated with Grating Couplers

A wafer-level testable silicon-on-insulator-based microring modulator is demonstrated with high modulation speed, to which the grating couplers are integrated as the fiber-to-chip interfaces. Cost-efficient fabrications are realized with the help of optical structure and etching depth designs. Grating couplers and waveguides are patterned and etched together with the same slab thickness. Finally we obtain a 3-dB coupling bandwidth of about 60 nm and 10 Gb/s nonreturn-to-zero modulation by wafer-level optical and electrical measurements.

First demonstration of long-haul transmission using silicon microring modulators

We report error-free long-haul transmission of optical data modulated using a silicon microring resonator electro-optic modulator with modulation rates up to 12.5 Gb/s. Using bit-error-rate and power penalty characterizations, we evaluate the performance of this device with varying modulation rates, and perform a comparative analysis using a commercial electro-optic modulator. We then experimentally measure the signal integrity degradation of the high-speed optical data with increasing propagation distances, induced chromatic dispersions, and bandwidth-distance products, showing error-free transmission for propagation distances up to 80 km. These results confirm the functional ubiquity of this silicon modulator, establishing the potential role of silicon photonic interconnects for chip-scale high-performance computing systems and memory access networks, optically-interconnected data centers, as well as high-performance telecommunication networks spanning large distances.

Wavelength-tunable silicon microring modulator

We present a wavelength-tunable, compact, high speed and low power silicon microring modulator. With a ring radius of 5 microm, we demonstrate a modulator with a high speed of 12.5 Gbps and a driving voltage of 3 V to achieve approximately 6 dB extinction ratio in high speed measurement. More importantly, tunability of the resonant wavelength is accomplished by means of a microheater on top of the ring, with an efficiency of 2.4 mW/nm (2.4 mW is needed to tune the resonant wavelength by 1 nm). This device aims to solve the narrow bandwidth problem of silicon microcavity modulators and increase the data bandwidth in optical interconnect systems.

Nonlinear Distortion in a Silicon Microring-Based Electro-Optic Modulator for Analog Optical Links

We analyze silicon microring modulators for analog signal generation, in terms of harmonic and intermodulation distortions. Free carrier plasma dispersion effect in silicon, Lorentzian-shaped resonance profile, and cavity photon lifetime are identified as the sources of modulation nonlinearity. Simulations show that the silicon microring modulators exhibit good modulation index and carrier-to-distortion ratio (CDR). For the generation of 10-GHz suboctave analog signals, a high optical-modulation-index of up to 46%, a CDR of 57 dB, and a spurious free dynamic range of 96 dB can be obtained. In fiber transmission, the microring-generated signal CDR can be improved by 10 dB due to the interaction between frequency chirp and chromatic dispersion.

Silicon-Based Microring Resonator Modulators for Intensity Modulation

We numerically analyze the characteristics of silicon-based microring modulators consisting of a single-ring resonator. Performance of the devices as digital intensity modulators is examined in terms of extinction ratio, pulsewidth, frequency chirp, spectral broadening, and signal quality. Three types of the modulators built in single-waveguide under-/overcoupling and dual-waveguide configurations are discussed. We show that cavity dynamics significantly affect the modulation properties. Data transmission performance over single-mode fibers is also presented. A silicon microring modulator with negative chirp could achieve 0.8 dB power penalty in 80-km fiber transmission without dispersion compensation.

125 Gbit/s carrier-injection-based silicon micro-ring silicon modulators

We show a scheme for achieving high-speed operation for carrier-injection based silicon electro-optical modulator, which is optimized for small size and high modulation depth. The performance of the device is analyzed theoretically and a 12.5-Gbit/s modulation with high extinction ratio >9dB is demonstrated experimentally using a silicon micro-ring modulator.

Cascaded silicon micro-ring modulators for WDM optical interconnection

We experimentally demonstrate cascaded silicon micro-ring modulators as the key component of a WDM interconnection system. We show clean eye-diagrams when each of the four micro-ring modulators is modulated at 4 Gbit/s. We show that optical inter-channel crosstalk is negligible with 1.3-nm channel spacing.