| Authors: | A. Rahim, A. Hermans, B. Wohlfeil, D. Petousi, B. Kuyken, D. Van Thourhout, R. Baets | | Title: | Taking Silicon Photonics Modulators to a Higher Performance Level: State of the Art and A Review of New Technologies | | Format: | International Journal | | Publication date: | 4/2021 | | Journal/Conference/Book: | Advanced Photonics
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| | Editor/Publisher: | SPIE, | | Volume(Issue): | 3(2) p. 024003-1 to 024003-23 | | DOI: | 10.1117/1.AP.3.2.024003 | | Citations: | 219 (Dimensions.ai - last update: 17/11/2024)
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Abstract
Optical links are cranking to higher and higher transmission speeds while shrinking to shorter and shorter ranges where optical links are envisaged even at the chip-scale. The scaling in data speed and span of the optical links demands modulators to be performant and cost-effective at the same time. Silicon photonics, a photonic integrated circuit technology that leverages the fabrication sophistication of complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS) technology, is ideally positioned to deliver the performance, price and manufacturing volume for the high-speed modulators of future optical communication links. Silicon photonics has relied on the plasma dispersion effect, either in injection, depletion, or accumulation mode, to demonstrate efficient high-speed modulators. The performance of plasma dispersion modulators is nearing its performance ceiling, which is below the performance demands from the next generation of optical links. As a result, recent years have seen a paradigm shift where the integration of a variety of electro-refractive and electro-absorptive materials is taking the performance of these silicon photonics modulators to a whole new level. The focus of this paper is to provide a comprehensive review of contemporary (i.e., plasma dispersion modulators) and new modulator implementations that involve the integration of novel materials with silicon
photonics. Related Research Topics
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