10Gb/s 5Vpp AND 5.6Vpp drivers implemented together with a monolithically integrated silicon modulator in 0.25µm SiGe:C BiCMOS

Goll, B., Thomson, D.J., Zimmermann, L., Porte, H., Gardes, F.Y., Hu, Y., Reed, Graham and Zimmermann, H. (2015) 10Gb/s 5Vpp AND 5.6Vpp drivers implemented together with a monolithically integrated silicon modulator in 0.25µm SiGe:C BiCMOS. Optics Communications, 336, 224-234. (doi:10.1016/j.optcom.2014.10.011).

Abstract

Two modulator drivers in 0.25 µm SiGe:C BiCMOS, which are integrated each together with a Mach-Zehnder modulator for electro-optical modulation (optical C-band) are presented. The fully integrated modulator occupies an area of 12.3 mm². Carrier depletion in reverse biased pn junctions is used to adjust the refractive index in both arms of the Mach-Zehnder modulator (dual-drive configuration). The first integrated driver has a low power consumption of 0.68 W but a high gain of S²¹ = 37 dB and delivers an inverted as well as a non-inverted output data signal between 0 V and 2.5 V (5 V_pp differential). The driver circuit is supplied with 2.5 V and at the output stage with 3.5 V. Bit-error-ratio (BER) measurements with a pseudo-random-bit-sequence (PRBS 2³¹ - 1) resulted in a BER better than 10^-12 for input voltage differences down to 50 mVpp. A second adapted driver is supplied with 2.5 V and 4.2 V, consumes 0.87 W and delivers a differential data signal with 5.6 Vpp having a gain of S²¹ = 40 dB. The fully integrated modulator achieved at an optical wavelength of 1540 nm and 10 Gb/s data rate an extinction ratio of 3.3 dB for a 1 mm long modulator, V_πL_π ~ 2 V cm, with driver variant 1 and 8.4 dB for a 2 mm long modulator with driver variant 2.

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Contributors

Author: F.Y. Gardes

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