| Authors: | C.J. Krückel, H. Becker, Y. Ban, M. J. R. Heck, J. Van Campenhout, D. Van Thourhout | | Title: | Towards Maximum Energy Efficiency of Carrier-Injection-Based Silicon Photonics | | Format: | International Journal | | Publication date: | 5/2021 | | Journal/Conference/Book: | Journal of Lightwave Technologies
| | Editor/Publisher: | IEEE, | | Volume(Issue): | 39(9) p.2931-2940 | | DOI: | 10.1109/JLT.2021.3059915 | | Citations: | 5 (Dimensions.ai - last update: 17/11/2024)
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Abstract
We present carrier-injection-based photonic switches, engineered for optical pulse distribution with maximum energy efficiency. We apply small-signal analysis and for the first time large-signal modelling to methodically optimize the switches for minimum energy consumption and to classify the electronic contributions from resistance, capacitance and diode. We present optimized electronic switch activation, which yields a sixfold reduction in energy consumption and we show how static power consumption becomes a negligible factor for optical pulse switching. We demonstrate that with adjusted phase shifter dimensions, MZI-based switches can operate with additional 50% enhanced energy efficiency with down to 4 pJ per switching operation. We show even further efficiency improvement using ring-based designs, allowing an additional improvement of 50% in energy efficiency and we discuss the trade-off between efficiency and optical bandwidth associated to the Q-factor. We benchmark carrier-injection-based switches together with comparable technologies of the silicon photonics platform and identify carrier-injection to be the most suitable technology for pulse switching applications. Related Projects
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