A Circuit-Level Implementation of Voltage-Tuning Scheme for Realizing Optical PAM-4 Using Three-Segment Microring Modulator

Rui Wang

doi:10.46604/ijeti.2020.5072

Authors

Rui Wang Department of Computer and Electrical Engineering, University of Idaho, Moscow, USA

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.46604/ijeti.2020.5072

Keywords:

interconnect, optical transmitter, photonics IC, PAM-4 transmitters

Abstract

Silicon Photonics, as one of the solutions to satisfy ever-increasing data bandwidth growth, becomes more challenging due to the latest technologies such as Internet of Things (IoT). Higher order pulse amplitude modulation (PAM) schemes is one of the answers to push towards higher data transmission in the presence of bandwidth limited optical devices. In this paper, we have implemented a circuit-level PAM-4 transmitter design based on the voltage-tuning scheme for realizing optical PAM-4 using a three-segment microring modulator. Simulation results based on the extracted layout using TSMC 65nm LP technology and IMEC-ePIXfab SiPhotonics ISIPP50G technology show that our proposed circuit-level transmitter structure is able to achieve PAM-4 data rate of 25-Gb/s with extinction ratio of 9dB and PAM-4 energy efficiency of 0.5pJ/bit. The results also verify that the scheme is able to achieve high tuning flexibility, but the proposed transmitter will consume more power as a result.

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