30-Gb/s Optical Link Combining Heterogeneously Integrated III–V/Si Photonics With 32-nm CMOS Circuits

Abstract

We present a silicon photonics optical link utilizing heterogeneously integrated photonic devices driven by low-power advanced 32-nm CMOS integrated circuits. The photonic components include a quantum-confined Stark effect electroabsorption modulator and an edge-coupled waveguide photodetector, both made of III-V material wafer bonded on silicon-on-insulator wafers. The photonic devices are wire bonded to the CMOS chips and mounted on a custom PCB card for testing. We demonstrate an error-free operation at data rates up to 30 Gb/s and transmission over 10 km at 25 Gb/s with no measured sensitivity penalty and a timing margin penalty of 0.2 UI.