Silicon Photonic Mach–Zehnder Modulator Architectures for on Chip PAM-4 Signal Generation
Year: 2019
Type: article
Abstract: Four level pulse amplitude modulation (PAM-4) has become the modulation format of choice to replace on-off keying (OOK) for the 400 Gb/s short reach optical communications systems. In this paper, we investigate the possible modifications to conventional Mach-Zehnder modulator structures to improve the system performance. We present three different silicon photonic Mach-Zehnder modulator architectures for generating PAM-4 in the optical domain using OOK electrical driving signals. We investigate the transfer function and linearity of each modulator and experimentally compare their PAM-4 generation and transmission performance with and without use of digital signal processing (DSP). We achieve the highest reported PAM-4 generation and transmission without the use of DSP. The power consumption of each modulator is presented, and we experimentally show that multielectrode Mach-Zehnder modulators provide a clear advantage at higher symbol rates compared to conventional Mach-Zehnder modulators.
Source: Journal of Lightwave Technology
Institutions: McGill University, Cardiff University
Language: English
Topic: Photonic and Optical Devices
Subfield: Electrical and Electronic Engineering
Field: Engineering
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
Estimated APC paid: $2,045
OpenAlex ID: W2930780786