Heterogeneously Integrated InP Electro-Absorption Modulator for Beyond 300 Gb/s Optical Links

• Published in: Journal of lightwave technology 2025-01, p.1-11
• Main Authors: Ostrovskis, Armands, Szczerba, Krzysztof, Salgals, Toms, Norberg, Erik, Koenigsmann, Michael, Sonkoly, John, Rubuls, Kristaps, Yun, Han, Kruger, Benjamin, Piels, Molly, Sedulis, Arvids, Pittala, Fabio, Spolitis, Sandis, Gruen, Markus, Louchet, Hadrien, Jahn, Robert, Yamaguchi, Kazuo, Bobrovs, Vjaceslavs, Pang, Xiaodan, Guzzon, Robert, Ozolins, Oskars
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: 200 Gb/s per lane; Bandwidth; Decision feedback equalizers; electro-absorption modulator; Electro-absorption modulators; heterogeneous integration; III-V semiconductor materials; Indium phosphide; Modulation; optical interconnects; Optical waveguides; Photodetectors; Silicon photonics; Stimulated emission
• ISSN: 0733-8724; 1558-2213
• DOI: 10.1109/JLT.2025.3526822

The recent AI boom requires more focus on energy-efficient and scalable optical interconnects. Silicon Photonics is enabling technology to satisfy growing demand. However, the lack of lasers and high-performance modulators hinders wide-scale adoption. Therefore, we present a heterogeneously integrated Indium Phosphide electro-absorption modulator with Silicon waveguides. We demonstrate up to 256 Gb/s on-off keying, 340 Gb/s 4-level pulse amplitude modulation, 375 Gb/s 6-level pulse amplitude modulation, and 360 Gb/s 8-level pulse amplitude modulation transmission over 500 m and 6 km of single-mode fiber with performance satisfying requirements of 6.25% overhead hard-decision forward error correction threshold of 4.5×10-3. Additionally, we investigate the modulator at 200 Gb/s per lane scenarios, demonstrating excellent performance with a simple seven-tap feed-forward equalizer.