Dispersion compensation of high-speed data using an integrated silicon nitride ring resonator

Area of Science:

• Photonics
• Optical Communications
• Materials Science

Background:

• Dispersion impairments limit data rates and reach in data center communications.
• Silicon photonics is a key technology for transceiver development.
• Integrating dispersion management into transceivers offers significant advantages.

Purpose of the Study:

• To present a novel ring-resonator based tunable dispersion compensation device.
• To demonstrate its integration potential within silicon photonics transceivers.
• To address limitations in data center communication performance.

Main Methods:

• Development of a tunable ring-resonator based dispersion compensator.
• Utilizing thermo-optic tuning for wavelength adjustment (20°C to 70°C).
• Conducting high-speed experiments with 25 Gb/s non-return-to-zero data over 20 km of single-mode fiber.

Main Results:

• Achieved tunable dispersion compensation from +12.9 × 10³ ps/nm to -12.3 × 10³ ps/nm.
• Demonstrated continuous wavelength tuning across 200 GHz.
• Showed significant eye diagram improvement and Bit Error Rate (BER) reduction from 10⁻³ to 10⁻¹¹.

Conclusions:

• The silicon photonics dispersion compensator effectively mitigates dispersion impairments.
• This technology enhances data rates and transmission reach in data centers.
• The device offers a promising solution for next-generation optical transceivers.