Linear-drive amplifier-less 112 Gbit/s PAM4 operation of a silicon-organic hybrid (SOH) Mach-Zehnder modulator at 265 mV<sub>pp</sub>
We demonstrate an optically packaged silicon-organic hybrid (SOH) Mach-Zehnder modulator that can be directly driven by industry-standard CMOS SerDes chips without any additional RF amplifiers. In a proof-of-concept experiment we show signaling at PAM4 data rates of 112 Gbit/s with ultra-low peak-to-peak drive-voltage swings down to 265 mV<sub>pp</sub>. We believe that our work marks an important step towards radically simplified linear-drive optical transceivers with unprecedented efficiency that can rely on sub-500 mV<sub>pp</sub> CMOS-level drive signals without any additional amplification.
Authors
- H. Kholeif (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0001-2303-1438)
- Adrian Mertens (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3891-5161)
- Georges Dagher (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3119-9572)
- C. Koos (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2690-0691)
- Carsten Eschenbaum (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1399-6041)
- W. Freude (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8797-7687)
- Martin Martens (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0004-3988-2757)
- Peter Erk
- Sidra Sarwar (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0971-8452)
- Thomas Zwick (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1268-0766)
- Stefan Braese (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4845-3191)
- Adrian Schwarzenberger (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3029-6426)
- Sebastian Randel
- Alexander Kotz (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0459-6759)
- Luca Valenziano (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0006-6091-7832)
- Stefan Singer (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0005-7104-3096)
Institutions
- Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (DE)
- Applied Multilayers (United Kingdom) (GB)
- Restorix Health (US)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Optics Express
- Published
- 2025-03-20
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1364/oe.551866
- Citations
- 1
- Primary Topic
- Photonic and Optical Devices
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.73