Optimized Photonic-Electronic Co-Design for Hybrid Integrated Silicon-Based Optical Transmitters

The increasing demand for high-speed and energy-efficient data transmission in global communication networks has driven the development of advanced optical interconnect technologies. This work explores the integration of an optical transmitter utilizing silicon photonic Mach-Zehnder modulators (MZMs) and drivers through a wire-bonding package. Fabricated on a silicon-on-insulator (SOI) platform, the MZMs leverage a single-drive series push-pull design to achieve high-speed modulation up to 112 Gbps and a 37 GHz bandwidth at a 3 V reverse DC bias, along with a modulation efficiency of 2.16 V<inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\cdot $ </tex-math></inline-formula> cm. The transmitter architecture incorporates a four-channel driver array, and experimental results demonstrate a bandwidth of 46 GHz with the capability to deliver a total data rate beyond 200 Gbps. An optimized photonic-electronic co-design on optoelectronic chips holds the promise of facilitating higher data transmission rates.