Flexible transmitter employing Silicon-segmented Mach–zehnder modulator with 32-nm CMOS distributed driver

Abstract

We propose a flexible optical transmitter for shortreach optical interconnects that includes a silicon photonic segmented Mach-Zehnder modulator (MZM) driven by a distributed six-channel 32nm SOI CMOS driver integrated circuit. Optical equalization is demonstrated to extend the bandwidth limitation of the transmitter with NRZ signaling at 25Gb/s. We also generate four-level pulse amplitude modulation (PAM-4) signaling using the same transmitter architecture. Transmission of 46Gb/s PAM-4 signal with bit error rate (BER) well below hard-decision forward error correction limit (BER=3.8×10-3) is experimentally demonstrated. Low driver power consumption of 130 mW at 46Gb/s PAM-4, corresponding to 2.8 pJ/bit power efficiency, is also achieved.