A low-voltage 35-GHz silicon photonic modulator-enabled 112-Gb/s transmission system

Abstract

We present a silicon photonic traveling-wave Mach-Zehnder modulator operating near 1550 nm with a 3-dB bandwidth of 35 GHz. A detailed analysis of traveling-wave electrode impedance, microwave loss, and phase velocity is presented. Small- and large-signal characterization of the device validates the design methodology. We further investigate the performance of the device in a short-reach transmission system. We report a successful 112-Gb/s transmission of four-level pulse amplitude modulation over 5 km of SMF using 2.2 V p-p drive voltage. Digital signal processing is applied at the transmitter and receiver. 56-GBaud PAM-4 and 64-Gb/s PAM-2 transmission is demonstrated below a pre-FEC hard decision threshold of 4.4 × 10 -3.