Ultralow drive voltage silicon traveling-wave modulator
Open Access
- 11 May 2012
- journal article
- Published by Optica Publishing Group in Optics Express
- Vol. 20 (11), 12014-12020
- https://doi.org/10.1364/oe.20.012014
Abstract
There has been great interest in the silicon platform as a material system for integrated photonics. A key challenge is the development of a low-power, low drive voltage, broadband modulator. Drive voltages at or below 1 Vpp are desirable for compatibility with CMOS processes. Here we demonstrate a CMOS-compatible broadband traveling-wave modulator based on a reverse-biased pn junction. We demonstrate operation with a drive voltage of 0.63 Vpp at 20 Gb/s, a significant improvement in the state of the art, with an RF energy consumption of only 200 fJ/bit.Keywords
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