A 5 × 200 Gbps microring modulator silicon chip empowered by two-segment Z-shape junctions.

Area of Science:

• Photonics and Optical Engineering
• Materials Science
• Electrical Engineering

Background:

• Optical interconnects are crucial for accelerating data transmission in the artificial intelligence era.
• Silicon microring resonator modulators offer cost-effectiveness, compact size, and wavelength multiplexing for optical modulation.
• A key challenge is the trade-off between bandwidth and modulation efficiency in existing devices.

Purpose of the Study:

• To demonstrate a high-performance silicon microring modulator array for dense wavelength division multiplexing.
• To overcome the bandwidth-efficiency trade-off in silicon depletion-mode modulators.
• To achieve a total data rate of 1 Tb/s with low energy consumption.

Main Methods:

• Development of a dense wavelength division multiplexing microring modulator array on a silicon chip.
• Utilizing two individual p-n junctions with an optimized Z-shape doping profile.
• Characterization of device performance, including data rate and energy consumption.

Main Results:

• Demonstration of a silicon microring modulator array achieving a full data rate of 1 Tb/s.
• Mitigation of the bandwidth-efficiency trade-off through optimized Z-shape doping.
• Achieved energy consumption of sub-ten fJ/bit for high-speed modulation.

Conclusions:

• All-silicon microring modulators can practically enable future 200 Gb/s/lane optical interconnects.
• The optimized Z-shape doping strategy effectively addresses performance limitations.
• This technology paves the way for scalable and efficient optical communication systems.