Capacitively Coupled Silicon Modulator Fabricated on the Standard Silicon-on-Insulator Platform
Silicon-on-insulator (SOI) based silicon modulators are essential for modern optical communication links. Almost all these modulators are based on a rib waveguide structure. In this paper, we report our observation of a silicon modulator in a silicon strip waveguide. Such waveguide have a simpler st...
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| Format: | Article |
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IEEE
2025-01-01
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| Series: | IEEE Photonics Journal |
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| Online Access: | https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/10876617/ |
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| author | Ahmed Shariful Alam Hao Sun Joyce K. S. Poon Jose Azana J. Stewart Aitchison |
| author_facet | Ahmed Shariful Alam Hao Sun Joyce K. S. Poon Jose Azana J. Stewart Aitchison |
| author_sort | Ahmed Shariful Alam |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Silicon-on-insulator (SOI) based silicon modulators are essential for modern optical communication links. Almost all these modulators are based on a rib waveguide structure. In this paper, we report our observation of a silicon modulator in a silicon strip waveguide. Such waveguide have a simpler structure, higher optical confinement, lower dispersion and can result in modulators with improved bandwidth compared to a rib waveguide. We demonstrated a novel strip waveguide-based Mach-Zehnder interferometer (MZI) silicon modulator fabricated in the Multi Project Wafer (MPW) run from a commercial foundry. Using a self-heterodyne measurement system we estimated a half-wave-voltage-length product (V <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$_{\pi }$</tex-math></inline-formula> L) of <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\sim$</tex-math></inline-formula> 9.4 V.cm at 20 MHz modulation signal. The electro-optic (EO) measurement of the proposed modulator can generate the first order sidebands up to 68 GHz and almost a flat frequency response was observed. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-dfd1555fab86497493ea8a7bacd31e82 |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 1943-0655 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-01-01 |
| publisher | IEEE |
| record_format | Article |
| series | IEEE Photonics Journal |
| spelling | doaj-art-dfd1555fab86497493ea8a7bacd31e822025-08-20T03:42:37ZengIEEEIEEE Photonics Journal1943-06552025-01-011721810.1109/JPHOT.2025.353924810876617Capacitively Coupled Silicon Modulator Fabricated on the Standard Silicon-on-Insulator PlatformAhmed Shariful Alam0https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3117-1446Hao Sun1Joyce K. S. Poon2Jose Azana3https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0080-7181J. Stewart Aitchison4https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8063-2443Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, CanadaInstitut National de la Recherche Scientifique – Énergie, Matériaux et Télécommunications (INRS-EMT), Montréal, QC, CanadaDepartment of Electrical & Computer Engineering, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, CanadaInstitut National de la Recherche Scientifique – Énergie, Matériaux et Télécommunications (INRS-EMT), Montréal, QC, CanadaDepartment of Electrical & Computer Engineering, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, CanadaSilicon-on-insulator (SOI) based silicon modulators are essential for modern optical communication links. Almost all these modulators are based on a rib waveguide structure. In this paper, we report our observation of a silicon modulator in a silicon strip waveguide. Such waveguide have a simpler structure, higher optical confinement, lower dispersion and can result in modulators with improved bandwidth compared to a rib waveguide. We demonstrated a novel strip waveguide-based Mach-Zehnder interferometer (MZI) silicon modulator fabricated in the Multi Project Wafer (MPW) run from a commercial foundry. Using a self-heterodyne measurement system we estimated a half-wave-voltage-length product (V <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$_{\pi }$</tex-math></inline-formula> L) of <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\sim$</tex-math></inline-formula> 9.4 V.cm at 20 MHz modulation signal. The electro-optic (EO) measurement of the proposed modulator can generate the first order sidebands up to 68 GHz and almost a flat frequency response was observed.https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/10876617/Bandwidth enhancementcapacitive couplingsilicon modulators |
| spellingShingle | Ahmed Shariful Alam Hao Sun Joyce K. S. Poon Jose Azana J. Stewart Aitchison Capacitively Coupled Silicon Modulator Fabricated on the Standard Silicon-on-Insulator Platform IEEE Photonics Journal Bandwidth enhancement capacitive coupling silicon modulators |
| title | Capacitively Coupled Silicon Modulator Fabricated on the Standard Silicon-on-Insulator Platform |
| title_full | Capacitively Coupled Silicon Modulator Fabricated on the Standard Silicon-on-Insulator Platform |
| title_fullStr | Capacitively Coupled Silicon Modulator Fabricated on the Standard Silicon-on-Insulator Platform |
| title_full_unstemmed | Capacitively Coupled Silicon Modulator Fabricated on the Standard Silicon-on-Insulator Platform |
| title_short | Capacitively Coupled Silicon Modulator Fabricated on the Standard Silicon-on-Insulator Platform |
| title_sort | capacitively coupled silicon modulator fabricated on the standard silicon on insulator platform |
| topic | Bandwidth enhancement capacitive coupling silicon modulators |
| url | https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/10876617/ |
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