DAC-Less amplifier-less generation and transmission of QAM signals using sub-volt silicon-organic hybrid modulators

We demonstrate generation and transmission of optical signals by directly interfacing highly efficient silicon-organic hybrid (SOH) modulators to binary output ports of a field-programmable gate array. Using an SOH Mach-Zehnder modulator (MZM) and an SOH IQ modulator we generate ON-OFF- keying and binary phase-shift keying signals as well as quadrature phase-shift keying and 16-state quadrature amplitude modulation (16QAM) formats. Peak-to-peak voltages amount to only 0.27 V-pp for driving the MZM and 0.41 V-pp for the IQ modulator. Neither digital-to-analog converters nor drive amplifiers are required, and the RF energy consumption in the modulator amounts to record-low 18 fJ/bit for 16QAM signaling

10 GBd modulator directly driven by an FPGA without electrical amplification

Using standard single-ended FPGA outputs with 270 mV(pp) we demonstrate 10GBd OOK and BPSK transmission by directly driving a low-voltage silicon-organic hybrid ( SOH) modulator. The scheme does not require electronic driver amplifiers, which paves the way to energy-efficient photonic-electronic integration

100 Gbit/s serial transmission using a silicon-organic hybrid (SOH) modulator and a duobinary driver IC

100 Gbit/s three-level (50 Gbit/s 00K) signals are generated using a silicon-organic hybrid modulator and a BiCMOS duobinary driver IC at a BER of 8.5x10(-5)(<10(-12)). We demonstrate dispersion-compensated transmission over 5 km

Silicon-Organic Hybrid MZI Modulator Generating OOK, BPSK and 8-ASK Signals for up to 84 Gbit/s

We report on high-speed multilevel signal generation and arbitrary pulse shaping with silicon-organic hybrid (SOH) Mach-Zehnder interferometer (MZI) modulators. Pure phase modulation exploiting the linear electrooptic effect allows the generation of multiple modulations formats at highest speed such as 40-Gbit/s on-off-keying (OOK) and binary-phase-shift keying (BPSK) and 28-Gbd 4-ASK and 8-ASK with data rates up to 84 Gbit/s. Additionally, beside NRZ pulse shaping, for the first time, Nyquist pulse shaping with silicon modulators is demonstrated to enable multiplexing at highest spectral efficiency

Electro-Optic Organic Crystal Silicon High-Speed Modulator

Silicon waveguides can be functionalized with an organic χ(2)-nonlinear cladding. This complements silicon photonics with the electro-optic (EO) effect originating from the cladding and enables functionalities such as pure phase modulation, parametric amplification, or THz-wave generation. Claddings based on a polymer matrix containing chromophores have been introduced, and their strong χ(2) nonlinearity has already been used to demonstrate ultralow power consuming modulators. However, these silicon-organic hybrid (SOH) devices inherit not only the advantageous properties; these polymer claddings require an alignment procedure called poling and must be operated well below their glass transition temperature. This excludes some applications. In contrast, claddings made from organic crystals come with a different set of properties. In particular, there is no need for poling. This new class of claddings also promises stronger resilience to high temperatures, better long-term stability, and photo-chemical stability. We report on the deposition of an organic crystal cladding of N-benzyl-2-methyl-4-nitroaniline (BNA) on silicon-on-insulator (SOI) waveguides, which have a CMOS-like metal stack on top. Adhering to such an architecture, which preserves the principal advantage of using CMOS-based silicon photonic fabrication processes, permits the first demonstration of high-speed modulation at 12.5 Gbit/s in this material class, which proves the availability of the EO effect from BNA on SOI also for other applications