Optical Interconnect Solution With Plasmonic Modulator and Ge Photodetector Array

We report on an optical chip-to-chip interconnect solution, thereby demonstrating plasmonics as a solution for ultra-dense, high-speed short-reach communications. The interconnect comprises a densely integrated plasmonic Mach–Zehnder modulator array that is packaged with standard driving electronics. On the receiver side, a germanium photodetector array is integrated with trans-impedance amplifiers. A multicore fiber provides a compact optical interface to the array. We demonstrate <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$4\times20$ </tex-math></inline-formula> Gb/s on–off keying signaling with direct detection.

[1]  Ashok V. Krishnamoorthy,et al.  A Monolithic 25-Gb/s Transceiver With Photonic Ring Modulators and Ge Detectors in a 130-nm CMOS SOI Process , 2012, IEEE Journal of Solid-State Circuits.

[2]  D. Hillerkuss,et al.  108 Gbit/s Plasmonic Mach–Zehnder Modulator with > 70-GHz Electrical Bandwidth , 2016, Journal of Lightwave Technology.

[3]  D Hillerkuss,et al.  Plasmonic modulator with >170 GHz bandwidth demonstrated at 100 GBd NRZ. , 2017, Optics express.

[4]  David Hillerkuss,et al.  All-plasmonic Mach–Zehnder modulator enabling optical high-speed communication at the microscale , 2015, Nature Photonics.

[5]  Min Yang,et al.  A 90nm CMOS integrated Nano-Photonics technology for 25Gbps WDM optical communications applications , 2012, 2012 International Electron Devices Meeting.

[6]  Wolfgang Freude,et al.  Femtojoule electro-optic modulation using a silicon–organic hybrid device , 2015, Light: Science & Applications.

[7]  D. Hillerkuss,et al.  Ultra-compact plasmonic IQ-modulator , 2015, 2015 European Conference on Optical Communication (ECOC).

[8]  Pieter Dumon,et al.  Two-Dimensional, 37-Channel, High-Bandwidth, Ultra-Dense Silicon Photonics Optical Interface , 2015, Journal of Lightwave Technology.

[9]  Michael R. Watts,et al.  An ultra low power 3D integrated intra-chip silicon electronic-photonic link , 2015, 2015 Optical Fiber Communications Conference and Exhibition (OFC).

[10]  Ioannis Tomkos,et al.  Plasmonic communications : light on a wire , 2013 .

[11]  Chen Sun,et al.  A Monolithically-Integrated Chip-to-Chip Optical Link in Bulk CMOS , 2015, IEEE J. Solid State Circuits.

[12]  D Hillerkuss,et al.  High speed plasmonic modulator array enabling dense optical interconnect solutions. , 2015, Optics express.

[13]  David A B Miller,et al.  Energy consumption in optical modulators for interconnects. , 2012, Optics express.

[14]  Rajeev J. Ram,et al.  Single-chip microprocessor that communicates directly using light , 2015, Nature.

[15]  Shiyang Zhu,et al.  Silicon-based horizontal nanoplasmonic slot waveguides for on-chip integration. , 2011, Optics express.

[16]  Ray T. Chen,et al.  Recent advances in silicon-based passive and active optical interconnects. , 2015, Optics express.

[17]  Frank R. Kschischang,et al.  Staircase Codes With 6% to 33% Overhead , 2014, Journal of Lightwave Technology.

[18]  P. Verheyen,et al.  High-Responsivity Low-Voltage 28-Gb/s Ge p-i-n Photodetector With Silicon Contacts , 2015, Journal of Lightwave Technology.

[19]  N. Vulliet,et al.  Recent progress in Silicon Photonics R&D and manufacturing on 300mm wafer platform , 2015, 2015 Optical Fiber Communications Conference and Exhibition (OFC).

[20]  Benjamin G. Lee,et al.  30-Gb/s Optical Link Combining Heterogeneously Integrated III–V/Si Photonics With 32-nm CMOS Circuits , 2015, Journal of Lightwave Technology.