A silicon photonics modulator design approach is proposed, in which the inductive networks and termination resistors are designed in conjunction with the optical phase shifter. A complementary metal–oxide–semiconductor (CM. A silicon photonics modulator design approach is proposed, in which the inductive networks and termination resistors are designed in conjunction with the optical phase shifter. A complementary metal–oxide–semiconductor (CMOS) silicon photonics transmitter developed with this approach achieved 112 gigabaud transmission with an energy efficiency better than 1 pJ per bit.Download PDFThe growth of data-intensive communication has pushed the transmission rates of optical technologies to 100 gigabaud (GBd) and beyond. However, analysing the energy efficiency of optical transmitters is challenging and does not always provide a clear picture of the performance of the system. For example, estimations of power consumption based on the device capacitance and/or the required drive voltage only account for the energy use associated with the modulation mechanism itself and do not include the power consumption of the broadband amplifier needed to drive these devices1,2,3. Similarly, digital signal processing (DSP) techniques are often used to extend the maximum data rate of optical transmitters, but the power consumption of the DSP module is largel. When an electrical amplifier is integrated with a photonics modulator the output of the optical transmitter is not in the electrical domain but is instead the effective optical modulation depth, which can be expressed as the extinction ratio or optical modulation amplitude at the specific data rate in question. Therefore, to improve the energy efficiency of optical transmitters it is important to ensure that the electrical energy used contributes to optical modulation. This requirement indicates that commonly used design targets (Fig. 1a), such as the signal integrity and absolute value of the peak-to-peak voltage swing of a traditional driver amplifier, are only intermediate design variables. Instead, the frequency response of photonic devices should be optimized with an inductive network based on the properties of the d. Historically, the integration of electronics and photonics has been referred to as the physical coupling approach between photonic and electronic devices5 and has involved techniques such as wire bonding, flip-chip bonding and monolithic integration. However, our work suggests that it could be time to consider a different approach; that is, to use advanced CMOS design techniques to fabricate photonics devices and build electronics and photonics devices as an integrated functional module, in which various signal-processing functions (such as signal equalization, complex signal formatting and spectral synthesis) could be realized within electrical-to-optical or optical-to-electrical conversion procedures. We do not intend to suggest that photonics could supersede electronics, but we do believe that the convergence o. “Increased energy efficiency and bandwidth are critically needed for optical transceivers to meet the requirements of datacenter interconnects. This work describes how the co-design of the CMOS driver and the silicon photonic modulator can extend the bandwidth of the transmitter assembly and reduce power consumption. Leveraging asymmetric t-coil pe.
