Recent progress in high-speed silicon optical modulators (Conference Presentation)

A recent trend in silicon optical modulators is the integration of alternative materials to improve performances. Whilst device demonstrations have been impressive, incompatibility with CMOS processing is an issue, potentially preventing low-cost manufacturing. Continued developments within all-silicon optical modulators therefore remains an important target. Here we present our recent research where we continue to push the boundaries of silicon plasma dispersion effect devices using different techniques. We show that by incorporating carrier accumulation-based phase modulators into ring resonators substantial enhancement in intensity modulation is possible due to strong accompanying absorption modulation. We also show our work on integrated transmitters featuring CMOS electronic drive amplifiers and carrier depletion Mach Zehnder modulators. We demonstrate that by following a codesign approach >100Gbaud and sub pj/bit operation is possible. Finally, high precision phase trimming within silicon waveguides is demonstrated. This can allow reductions in thermal tuning requirements, thus further reducing overall modulator power consumption.