Abstract

Silicon photonics offer a low-cost platform for large-scale RF system integration. Spur-free dynamic range (SFDR) for analog and RF photonic components is limited by electrical and optical characteristics of the p- and n- junction used to produce plasma dispersion. We propose a silicon ring modulator and demonstrate design conditions that balance the phase change between the DC Kerr and plasma dispersion effects to produce a broadband, linear electro-optical conversion. A linear phase shifter is tested within a ring modulator and an SFDR of 98 dB $\cdot$ Hz $^{2/3}$ is measured. With predistortion, the SFDR increases to 108 dB $\cdot$ Hz $^{2/3}$ . In addition, the ring supports discrete multitone modulation with 16-QAM subcarriers at a 47 Gbps data rate over a 16 GHz bandwidth.

© 2019 IEEE

Forward bias operation of silicon photonic Mach Zehnder modulators for RF applications

Rui Lin Chao, Jin Wei Shi, Aditya Jain, Takako Hirokawa, Akhilesh S.P. Khope, Clint Schow, J.E. Bowers, Roger Helkey, and James F. Buckwalter
Opt. Express 25(19) 23181-23190 (2017)

High linearity silicon DC Kerr modulator enhanced by slow light for 112 Gbit/s PAM4 over 2 km single mode fiber transmission

Penghui Xia, Hui Yu, Qiang Zhang, Xiaofei Wang, Zhilei Fu, Qikai Huang, Nannan Ning, Zhujun Wei, Xiaoqing Jiang, and Jianyi Yang
Opt. Express 30(10) 16996-17007 (2022)

Slope efficiency and spurious-free dynamic range of silicon Mach-Zehnder modulator upon carrier depletion and injection effects

Xianshu Luo, Xiaoguang Tu, Junfeng Song, Lu Ding, Qing Fang, Tsung-Yang Liow, Mingbin Yu, and Guo-Qiang Lo
Opt. Express 21(14) 16570-16577 (2013)

Highly linear ring modulator from hybrid silicon and lithium niobate

Li Chen, Jiahong Chen, Jonathan Nagy, and Ronald M. Reano
Opt. Express 23(10) 13255-13264 (2015)

Linearity of silicon ring modulators for analog optical links

Ali Ayazi, Tom Baehr-Jones, Yang Liu, Andy Eu-Jin Lim, and Michael Hochberg
Opt. Express 20(12) 13115-13122 (2012)