An 80 Gbs Silicon Photonic Modulator Based On The

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An 80 Gb/s Silicon Photonic Modulator Based on the Principle of Overlapped

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Article in IEEE Photonics Journal · May 2017

DOI: 10.1109/JPHOT.2017.2702101
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Photonics Journal
An 80 Gb/s Silicon Photonic Modulator Based on the

Principle of Overlapped Resonances
Rui Li, David Patel, Alireza Samani, Eslam El-Fiky, Zhenping Xing, Mohammed Sowailem, Qiuhang Zhong,
and David V. Plant
Dept. of Electrical and Computer Engineering, McGill University, Montréal, Québec, Canada
Abstract: We report a silicon photonic modulator based on a Mach-Zehnder interferometer (MZI) loaded with
a microring modulator (MRM) on one arm and a microring resonator (MRR) on the other arm. The device is
operated with the resonances of the MRM and the MRR overlapped to improve the extinction ratios (ERs)
and the optical modulation amplitudes (OMAs). The operating principle is studied in detail using an analytical
model. The measured 3-dB electro-optic (EO) bandwidth of the device is 27.4 GHz under 0 V reverse bias
voltage. In the back-to-back (B2B) configuration, the modulator has error-free performance up to 38 Gb/s
using on-off keying (OOK) modulation without digital signal processing (DSP). At 56 Gb/s using four-level
pulse amplitude modulation (PAM-4) with DSP, the measured bit error rate (BER) is below 1 × 10-6. We further
present successful 56 Gb/s OOK transmission and 80 Gb/s PAM-4 transmission over 2 km of standard single
mode fiber (SSMF), with measured BERs below the hard-decision (HD) forward error correction (FEC)
threshold of 3.8 × 10-3.
Index Terms: Electrooptic modulators, silicon photonics, optical interconnections, intensity modulation.
1. Introduction
In intra-data center transmission systems, intensity modulated/direct detection (IM/DD) links are
favored as they do not require a local oscillator or coherent digital signal processing (DSP), which
significantly saves on cost and power consumption compared to coherent links. Among the available
modulation formats for IM/DD systems, higher order pulse amplitude modulation (PAM) is favored as it
has greater spectral efficiency and thus relaxes bandwidth requirements on optoelectronics and RF
electronics [1, 2]. In addition, four-level pulse amplitude modulation (PAM-4) was recently accepted by
the IEEE 802.3bs 400G taskforce [3]. Currently, single wavelength 100 Gb/s PAM-4 transmission using
silicon travelling wave Mach-Zehnder modulators (TWMZMs) over intra-data center distances have
been reported [4, 5].
High speed silicon modulators, such as TWMZM [4 - 7], microring modulator (MRM) [8, 9], Michelson
interferometric modulator [10], Bragg grating modulator [11], silicon-insulator-silicon capacitor MZM [12]
and Germanium electro-absorption modulator [13], are key components of silicon photonic transmission
links. In addition to these reports, silicon modulators based on a combination of Mach-Zehnder
interferometer (MZI) and microring resonators (MRRs) have been reported to achieve high linearity [14],
thermal stability [15] and wide operating wavelength range [16]. Such structures have also been reported
for quadrature phase-shift keying modulation [17], low-chirp on-off keying (OOK) modulation [18, 19]
and high speed OOK transmission [20].
In this paper, we present a silicon photonic modulator based on a MZI loaded with a MRM on one arm
and a MRR on the other arm for high speed OOK and PAM-4 transmission over distances suitable in
intra-data center networking. The device is operated with the resonances of the MRM and the MRR
overlapped, and we use an analytical model to explain the operating principle in detail. We further
characterize the direct current (DC) static performance, small signal modulation and large signal
transmission of the device. When the resonances of the MRM and the MRR overlapped, the device has
large improvement in the extinction ratios (ERs) and the optical modulation amplitudes (OMAs) at
various reverse bias voltages, compared to those when the resonances are separated. The measured
3-dB electro-optic (EO) bandwidth of the device is 27.4 GHz under 0 V reverse bias voltage. In the back-
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to-back (B2B) configuration, the device has error-free performance up to 38 Gb/s using OOK modulation
without DSP. At 56 Gb/s using PAM-4 with DSP, the device has zero error in the B2B transmission of
the data block we used, showing a measured bit error rate (BER) below 1 × 10-6. We further present
successful 56 Gb/s OOK and 80 Gb/s PAM-4 transmission over 2 km of standard single mode fiber
(SSMF), with measured BERs below the hard-decision (HD) forward error correction (FEC) threshold of
3.8 × 10-3.
To the best of our knowledge, this is the first time that the use of overlapped resonances to enhance
the performance of a silicon modulator has been proposed and studied. As listed in Table I, our work is
the first demonstration of PAM-4 transmission using a silicon MZI loaded with a MRM and a MRR. The
bit rate we achieved is presently the highest published for PAM-4 short reach transmission based on
the modulation of a single silicon photonic MRM.
TABLE I
COMPARISON OF PREVIOUSLY PUBLISHED SILICON PHOTONIC MRM-BASED PAM-4 TRANSMISSION WITH THIS WORK
Reference Structure Bit rate (Gb/s) Transmission distance (km)

80 B2B
[9] Single MRM
64 5
[21] Single MRM 24 150
[22] Single MRM 20 B2B
[23] Cascaded dual MRMs 2 B2B
[25] Single MRM 40 B2B
[27] Ring based multi-segmented modulator 25 B2B
[28] Single MRM 64 20
[29] Four single MRMs (four wavelengths) 4 × 56.25 80
This work MZI loaded with MRM and MRR 80 2
2. Device Design and Fabrication
The device is designed by loading a balanced MZI with a MRM on one arm and a MRR on the other
arm, as illustrated in Fig. 1(a). Each MZI arm is 230 µm long, and both the MRM and the MRR have a
radius of 20 µm and a 200 nm gap from the MZI arms. The two microrings both have an all-pass structure
and are designed in the over-coupled condition. Around 25% of their circumferences are n-doped as
heaters for tuning their resonant wavelengths. In the MRM, around 75% of the circumference is p- and
n-doped to form a symmetric lateral pn junction for modulation via the plasma dispersion effect. The
MRR is designed to achieve resonance overlap with the MRM. As illustrated in Fig. 1(b), a lower doping
concentration is applied in the optical waveguide to reduce loss from optical scattering, and the heavily
doped regions in the slab are used for ohmic contacts with aluminum layers.
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Fig. 1. (a) Structure of the device, (b) schematic of the pn junction and (c) micrograph of the fabricated device.
The device was fabricated at IME A*STAR on a silicon-on-insulator wafer with a 220 nm thick silicon
layer and a 2 µm thick buried oxide (BOX). Fig. 1(c) shows the micrograph of the fabricated device. The
total footprint, which is actually dominated by the bond pads, is 0.61 mm × 0.61 mm. As demonstrated
in Fig. 1(a) and 1(c), light is input and output from the MZI, with DC voltages applied on the heaters for
thermal tuning, and radio frequency (RF) signals applied on the MRM for modulation. The device is
designed for modulation in transverse electric (TE) polarization.
3. Operating principle and DC characterization
As shown in Fig. 1(a), assuming that the MZI is perfectly balanced, the electric fields on the two MZI
arms are [30]:
Ein  R1  t1  e  j R1
Et1   j
2  R1  t1  e R1
*
(1)
E  R 2  t2  e  j R 2
Et 2  in  j
2  R 2  t2  e R 2
*
in which Ein is the input electric field, ΛR1, ΛR2 are the round-trip attenuation coefficients of the two
microrings (zero loss: ΛR1=1, ΛR2=1), t1, t2 are the straight-through coupling coefficients, and θR1, θR2 are
the round-trip phase changes of the two microrings, which are expressed as following [31]:
R1
 R1  4 2 neff 1
 (2)
R2
 R 2  4 neff 2
2

where neff1, neff2 are the effective indices of the two microrings, R1, R2 are the ring radii, and λ is the input
wavelength. The output power Pout is:
1
Pout | Eout |2   M | Et1  Et 2 |2 (3)
2
in which αM is the attenuation coefficient of each MZI arm (zero loss: αM=1).
The output power of the device Pout is measured using the experimental setup shown in Fig. 2(a).
With 0 dBm TE-polarized light input from the laser, the output power was -12 dBm. Approximately 10.5
dB of the insertion loss (IL) is due to the grating coupler (GC) pair, and the estimated IL of the 5.6 mm
silicon waveguide connecting the device and the GC pair is approximately 1.3 dB. The optical
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transmission spectra after normalization to the IL of the GC pair and the routing waveguide are shown
in Fig. 2(b). The IL of the device is approximately 0.22 dB. Ideally, if the MZI is perfectly balanced and
the two microrings are exactly identical as designed, the transmission spectrum should have only one
resonance. However, as shown by the dashed blue curve in Fig. 2(b), the device has a spectrum of two
resonances. This is because during the fabrication process, ring radius, gap and waveguide doping
concentration may deviate. These variations result in changes of the round-trip attenuation coefficient,
straight-through coupling coefficient and effective index, and therefore change the transmission
spectrum of the device.
Based on the measured passive spectrum, we propose an operating principle in which the resonances
of the MRM and the MRR are overlapped. By applying an optimized DC voltage of 2 V on the MRM
heater, the resonance of the MRM shifts to a longer wavelength and the spectrum of the device has a
single resonance, as shown by the red curve in Fig. 2(b). In this configuration, the device has DC
characteristics shown in Table II. For comparison, we applied 1.13 V on the MRR heater to shift the
resonance of the MRR far away from that of the MRM, as shown by the green curve in Fig. 2(b). As
listed in Table II, compared to that with separated resonances, the device with overlapped resonances
has a 15 dB larger ER and a 105 pm wider FWHM.
Fig. 2. (a) DC characterization experimental setup, and (b) measured transmission spectra of the device.
TABLE II
QUALITY (Q) FACTOR, FWHM AND ER OF THE DEVICE
Q-factor FWHM (pm) ER (dB)

Resonances separated 7,220 215 19.5
Resonances overlapped 4,850 320 34.5
To further explain the operating principle, we investigate the performance of the device by simulating
its transmission spectrum. Based on our design parameters, R1 and R2 are both set to be 20 µm, and
the round-trip attenuation coefficients ΛR1, ΛR2 are 0.99, corresponding to a 7 dB/cm loss for a MRR with
20 µm radius. The MZI waveguide attenuation coefficient αM is fixed to be 0.9879, which is equal to a
2.3 dB/cm loss for a 230 µm long waveguide. Next, we obtain the remaining parameters in equations
(1) – (3) when the resonances of the MRM and the MRR are both overlapped and separated, by curve
fitting of the red curve and green curve in Fig. 2(b), respectively. When the resonances are overlapped,
the straight-through coupling coefficients are t1 = 0.904, t2 = 0.94, and the effective indices are neff1 =
2.520456, neff2 = 2.520769. When the resonances are separated, t1 = 0.88, t2 = 0.945, neff1 = 2.520198
and neff2 = 2.521469.
Based on the fitted parameters, we simulate the DC characterization spectra of the device when the
resonances are separated and overlapped in Fig. 3(a) and 3(b), respectively. In the simulation, various
reverse bias voltages from 0 V to 8 V are applied on the RF pad of the MRM. Based on our pn junction
design, the simulated modulation efficiency is set as dneff1/dV=1.5 × 10-5 /V. Here, we use both OMA
and ER as figures of merit to evaluate the DC performance of the device. When the resonances are
overlapped, the OMA and the ER at the operating wavelength λ2 (1552.655 nm) at -4 V bias are 81 µW
and 13.2 dB, as shown in Fig. 3(b). When the resonances are separated, we choose λ1 (1552.44 nm)
for fair comparison, because under -4 V bias voltage the power transmission at λ1 is the same as that
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at λ2 when the resonances are overlapped. As shown in Fig. 3(a), the OMA and the ER under -4 V bias
at λ1 are 75 µW and 9.4 dB. The simulated DC transmission spectra shows both the OMA and the ER
improve by overlapping the resonances of the MRM and the MRR.
Fig. 3. Simulated DC spectra of the device when resonances are (a) separated (inset: zoomed figure) and (b) overlapped.
The measured DC characterization spectra of the device after removing the IL of the GC pair and the
routing waveguide are shown in Fig. 4. They are in good agreement with the simulation results. At -4 V
bias voltage, the OMA at λ1 is 54 µW when the resonances are separated, and it is 77 µW at λ2 when
the resonances are overlapped. The ERs in these two conditions are 8.1 dB and 12.9 dB, respectively.
When the resonances are overlapped, 23 µW improvement in the OMA and 4.8 dB improvement in the
ER are observed at -4 V bias. In Table III, the OMAs and the ERs of the device at various reverse bias
voltages are shown. Compared to the configuration with separated resonances, the device with
overlapped resonances has large improvement in both the OMAs and the ERs. In the following section,
where we report the small signal and large signal performance, we operate the device with the
resonances of the MRM and the MRR overlapped.
Fig. 4. Measured DC spectra of the device when resonances are (a) separated (inset: zoomed figure) and (b) overlapped.
TABLE III
COMPARISON OF OMAS AND ERS OF THE DEVICE AT VARIOUS REVERSE BIAS VOLTAGES
-2 V -4 V -6 V -8 V
Resonances separated 16 54 103 125
OMA (µW)
Resonances overlapped 29 77 128 199
Resonances separated 3.7 8.1 9.8 10.6
ER (dB)
Resonances overlapped 8.9 12.9 15.0 16.8
4. Modulation experiments and results
4.1. Small signal modulation
We measured the small signal modulation of the device using a Keysight lightwave component
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analyzer after calibrating out a 40 GHz GGB probe and the cables from 10 MHz to 50 GHz. The
normalized EE |S11| response and EO |S21| response under 0 V reverse bias are shown in Fig. 5. The
measured EE 3-dB bandwidth is 38 GHz, and the measured 3-dB EO bandwidth is 27.4 GHz.
Fig. 5. Measured (a) EE |S11| and (b) EO |S21| of the device under 0 V reverse bias voltage.
4.2. OOK modulation and transmission without DSP
The experimental setup of OOK modulation without DSP is illustrated in Fig. 6. A 231-1 pseudo random
binary sequence (PRBS) was generated with a SHF 12103A bit pattern generator (BPG). After RF
amplification and attenuation, the peak-to-peak voltage was measured to be 1.8 Vpp in a 50 Ω system.
A bias voltage of -2.4 V together with the RF signals was applied on the MRM using a 65 GHz bias tee.
At the same time, a 2 V DC voltage was applied on the MRM heater to overlap the resonances of the
MRM and the MRR. A TE-polarized laser at 1552.655 nm was used as the light source, and the power
coupled into the chip was 14 dBm. The output from the modulator was launched into different SSMF
distances ranging from 0 to 2 km. The optical signals were boosted by an erbium-doped fiber amplifier
(EDFA) to 1 dBm, and were received by a 35 GHz photodetector (PD) with a transimpedance amplifier
(TIA). An 80 GHz Keysight digital communication analyzer (DCA) was used to obtain the eye diagrams
for qualitative analysis, and a SHF bit error rate tester (BERT) was used to analyze the BERs
quantitatively.
Fig. 6. Experimental setup for OOK modulation and transmission without DSP.
The measured BER results of B2B OOK modulation are presented in Fig. 7(a), where both the HD
FEC threshold of 3.8 × 10-3 [32] and KP4 FEC threshold of 2.2 × 10-4 [33] are shown for performance
evaluation. The measured eye diagrams and Q-factors at 40 Gb/s and 50 Gb/s are shown in Fig. 7(b)
and 7(c), respectively. When the resonances are overlapped, the device has error free (0 error in 3 Tbits
transmission) performance at 38 Gb/s. At 56 Gb/s, the BER of the device with overlapped resonances
is below the HD FEC threshold, which means the device can achieve error free (the post-FEC BER
below 10-15 [32]) OOK modulation at a gross bit rate of 56 Gb/s.
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Fig. 7. Measured B2B OOK (a) BER results, eye diagrams at (b) 40 Gb/s and (c) 50 Gb/s of the device.
We further investigate the OOK transmission performance of the device when the resonances are
overlapped over 0.5 to 2 km of SSMF. The BER results and eye diagrams after 2 km of SSMF
transmission are shown in Fig. 8. The eye diagrams at 40 Gb/s and 50 Gb/s are both clearly open. The
BER at 56 Gb/s after 2 km transmission is still both below the HD FEC BER threshold of 3.8 × 10-3.
Fig. 8. Measured OOK (a) BER results after transmission over 0 - 2 km of SSMF, eye diagrams at (b) 40 Gb/s and (c) 50
Gb/s after 2 km of SSMF transmission.
4.3. PAM-4 modulation and transmission with DSP
The PAM-4 modulation and transmission is based on DSP with modifications from the methods in [4,
34], and the experimental setup is illustrated in Fig. 9. A 70 GSamples/s 8-bit digital-to-analog converter
(DAC) was used for data generation, and a 160 GSamples/s real-time oscilloscope (RTO) with 62 GHz
bandwidth and 8-bit resolution was used as the analog-to-digital converter (ADC) for offline DSP. On
the transmitter side, a pseudo random integer sequence (PRIS) was generated and then a raised-root
cosine (RRC) filter with a roll-off factor of 0.5 was used for pulse shaping. Afterwards, the sequence was
resampled to 70 GSamples/s using offline DSP. Before data transmission, a pre-emphasis filter was
obtained by a least-mean-squares algorithm using a training sequence, and was then applied at the
transmitter to compensate for the system limitations. Only the DAC and the RF amplifier were
compensated by this equalizer. The digitally processed signals were then uploaded to the DAC.
Afterwards, the transmitted 4-level RF signals were amplified by a differential amplifier. The peak-to-
peak voltage was measured to be 3.8 Vpp in a 50 Ω system. Using a 65 GHz bias tee, a 7 V reverse bias
voltage was applied on the MRM together with the 4-level RF signals. Meanwhile, the device was
operated with overlapped resonances by applying a 2 V DC voltage on the MRM heater. A 14 dBm TE-
polarized laser output at 1552.655 nm was coupled into the device. The modulated signals were
launched into 0 – 2 km of SSMF. An EDFA was used to amplify the optical signals to 2.7 dBm, and a 35
Photonics Journal
GHz PD with TIA converted them to electrical signals. On the receiver side, the data captured by the
RTO were resampled to 2 samples/symbol and a RRC filter matched to the filter on the transmitter side
was applied. Then an equalizer with a finite-impulse-response, whose coefficients were obtained from
a training sequence, was applied. The BERs were measured by comparing the received data with the
transmitted PRIS after data synchronization.
Fig. 9. Experimental setup of PAM-4 modulation and transmission with DSP.
The measured B2B PAM-4 BER results, the eye diagrams at 28 Gbaud and 35 Gbaud are shown in
Fig. 10. When the resonances are overlapped, the device has 0 error using the transmitted data block
up to 28 Gbaud, which means the measured BER is smaller than 1 × 10-6. At 40 Gbaud, the BER of the
device is still below the HD FEC threshold.
Fig. 10. Measured B2B PAM-4 (a) BER results, eye diagrams at (b) 28 Gbaud and (c) 35 Gbaud of the device.
We further transmit the modulated PAM-4 optical signals over 0 to 2 km of SSMF. The measured
BERs are shown in Fig. 11(a). Clearly open eye diagrams at 28 Gbaud and 35 Gbaud after 2 km of
SSMF transmission are demonstrated in Fig. 11(b) and 11(c). The BER at 40 Gbaud is 3.73 × 10-3,
showing a successful PAM-4 transmission over 2 km of SSMF at a bit rate of 80 Gb/s.
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Fig. 11. Measured PAM-4 (a) BER results after transmission over 0 – 2 km of SSMF, eye diagrams at (b) 28 Gbaud and (c)
35 Gbaud after 2 km of SSMF transmission.
5. Conclusion
In this paper, a silicon photonic modulator based on a MZI loaded with a MRM on one arm and a MRR
on the other arm is demonstrated and analyzed for high speed OOK and PAM-4 transmission over 2 km
of SSMF, which is suitable in intra-data center networking. The operating principle of overlapped
resonances is proposed to enhance the modulation performance, and it is studied using an analytical
model. The analytical simulation and the measured DC transmission spectra both show the device with
overlapped resonances has large improvement in the ERs and the OMAs, compared to the configuration
with clearly separated resonances. The 3-dB EO bandwidth of the device is measured to be 27.4 GHz
under 0 V reverse bias. In the B2B configuration, the modulator has error-free performance using 38
Gb/s OOK modulation without DSP. It also has zero error in the 56 Gb/s PAM-4 B2B transmission of
the data block we used, showing a measured BER lower than 1 × 10-6. Furthermore, 56 Gb/s OOK and
80 Gb/s PAM-4 over 2 km of SSMF transmission with BERs below HD FEC threshold of 3.8 × 10-3 are
successfully demonstrated.
Compared to previously reported results of PAM-4 transmission based on the modulation of silicon
photonic MRMs [9, 21 - 29], this work achieves the highest bit rate for a single silicon MRM-based PAM-
4 over transmission distances suitable for intra-data center applications. With wavelength-division-
multiplexing configuration, the experimental results using the resonances overlap principle presented in
this paper is a good candidate to develop next generation 400G optical interconnects for intra-data
center transmission links.
Acknowledgements
The authors gratefully acknowledge CMC Microsystems for enabling fabrication, and providing access
to simulation and CAD tools. We also thank the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of
Canada (NSERC) for their financial support.
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An 80 Gbs Silicon Photonic Modulator Based On The

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An 80 Gb/s Silicon Photonic Modulator Based on the Principle of Overlapped

Article in IEEE Photonics Journal · May 2017

Rui Li David Patel

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Alireza Samani Zhenping Xing

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An 80 Gb/s Silicon Photonic Modulator Based on the

Reference Structure Bit rate (Gb/s) Transmission distance (km)

2. Device Design and Fabrication

3. Operating principle and DC characterization

Q-factor FWHM (pm) ER (dB)

4. Modulation experiments and results

4.1. Small signal modulation

4.2. OOK modulation and transmission without DSP

4.3. PAM-4 modulation and transmission with DSP

Fig. 9. Experimental setup of PAM-4 modulation and transmission with DSP.

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