40 GBd 16QAM modulation at 160 Gbit/s in a silicon-organic hybrid (SOH) modulator

Abstract

We demonstrate 16QAM and QPSK modulation at symbol rates of 40 GBd and 45 GBd using a silicon-based IQ modulator. The device enables data rates up to 160 Gbit/s in a single polarization with an estimated energy consumption of 120fJ/bit. IntroductionHigh-performance IQ-modulators are key elements for high-speed links in telecom and datacom networks. Silicon photonics is a particularly attractive platform for realizing such devices, leveraging mature CMOS processing and enabling large-scale integration of photonic devices along with electronic circuitry

40 GBd 16QAM Signaling at 160 Gb/s in a Silicon-Organic Hybrid Modulator

“…SOH integration enables remarkably small voltage-length products of down to 0.5 Vmm measured at DC [14], and at the same time avoids unwanted amplitudephase coupling and thereby enables higher-order modulation formats [15], [16]. We demonstrate 16QAM and QPSK signaling at symbol rates of 40 GBd and 45 GBd, respectively, leading to line rates (net data rates) of up to 160 Gbit/s (133.3 Gbit/s) on a single polarization [17]. This is the highest value achieved by a silicon-based modulator up to now.…”

64 GBd Operation of a Silicon-Organic Hybrid Modulator at Elevated Temperature

“…However, despite these advantages in performance, practical deployment of SOH devices has so far been impeded by rather low temperature stability of the associated electro-optic materials. Moreover, symbol rates of SOH devices are still lagging behind that of their allsilicon counterparts with record values of 45 GBd demonstrated for an SOH QPSK modulator [9].In this paper we demonstrate generation of 4ASK signals with symbol rates of up to 64 GBd and line rates of up to 128 Gbit/s in an SOH Mach-Zehnder modulator. This is the highest symbol rate demonstrated for a silicon photonic modulator and the highest data rate achieved in a silicon-based Mach-Zehnder device so far.…”

“…However, despite these advantages in performance, practical deployment of SOH devices has so far been impeded by rather low temperature stability of the associated electro-optic materials. Moreover, symbol rates of SOH devices are still lagging behind that of their allsilicon counterparts with record values of 45 GBd demonstrated for an SOH QPSK modulator [9].…”

“…These limitations can be overcome by silicon-organic hybrid (SOH) integration, which combines conventional silicon-on-insulator (SOI) waveguides with organic electro-optic (EO) materials to realize highly efficient and compact phase shifters with voltage-length products of down to U π L = 0.5 Vmm [5], [6]. The SOH approach allows signaling with record-low energy consumption [6], [7] and is particularly well suited for generation of higher-order modulation formats [8] at record line rates of up 160 Gbit/s [9]. However, despite these advantages in performance, practical deployment of SOH devices has so far been impeded by rather low temperature stability of the associated electro-optic materials.…”

Silicon-organic hybrid (SOH) integration and photonic multi-chip systems: Technologies for high-speed optical interconnects

“…The response of the electro-optic materials is ultra-fast and enables small-signal modulation at 100 GHz [5], generation of 100 Gbit/s on-ofkeying (OOK) signals [6], and symbol rates of 64 GBd for multi-level signaling [7]. Moreover, we demonstrated generation of advanced modulation formats such as 16QAM using in-phase-quadrature (IQ-)modulators with record-low energy consumption and symbol rates (bit rates) of up to 40 GBd (160 Gbit/s) [8], [9]. We further show that the extraordinarily low operating voltage of SOH modulators allows operation of these devices directly from standard output ports of field-programmable gate arrays (FPGA), without the need for external amplifiers and digital-to-analog converters.…”