Photonic Systems Brown Bag Seminar Series

Thursday, April 20, 2006, at 12 noon           RLE Haus  Conf. room 36-428

High-Speed Si Electro-Optic Modulator for Electronic Photonic Integrated Circuits

Fuwan Gan

The development of future electronic-photonic integrated circuits based on silicon technology critically depends on the availability of CMOS-compatible, low cost and high-speed components that enable the interaction of electronic and optical signals. However, components that allow for high speed electro-optic modulation on the CMOS platform are still in their infancy.

In this seminar, a high-speed CMOS-compatible Mach-Zehnder electro-optic modulator is investigated, which is based on Si/SiO 2 high-index contrast (HIC) waveguides with graded doping profile for minimum optical loss and maximum modulation speed. Operating frequencies up to 40 GHz are realized. Schemes for compensation of slow thermal effects are discussed. L ow insertion loss of 3dB and a low figure of merit V p L =6Vmm is achieved.

Application of the modulator in electronic photonic sampling system is discussed.