Gigascale Silicon Photonic Transmitters Integrating HBT-based Carrier-injection Electroabsorption Modulator Structures.
Fu, Enjin.
2015
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Abstract: Demand for more bandwidth is rapidly increasing, which is driven by
data intensive applications such as high-definition (HD) video streaming, cloud storage,
and terascale computing applications. Next-generation high-performance computing systems
require power efficient chip-to-chip and intra-chip interconnect yielding densities on the
order of 1Tbps/cm2. The performance requirements ... read moreof such system are the driving force
behind the development of silicon integrated optical interconnect, providing a
cost-effective solution for fully integrated optical interconnect systems on a single
substrate. Compared to conventional electrical interconnect, optical interconnects have
several advantages, including frequency independent insertion loss resulting in ultra wide
bandwidth and link latency reduction. For high-speed optical transmitter modules, the
optical modulator is a key component of the optical I/O channel. This thesis presents a
silicon integrated optical transmitter module design based on a novel silicon HBT-based
carrier injection electroabsorption modulator (EAM), which has the merits of wide optical
bandwidth, high speed, low power, low drive voltage, small footprint, and high modulation
efficiency. The structure, mechanism, and fabrication of the modulator structure will be
discussed which is followed by the electrical modeling of the post-processed modulator
device. The design and realization of a 10Gbps monolithic optical transmitter module
integrating the driver circuit architecture and the HBT-based EAM device in a 130nm BiCMOS
process is discussed. For high power efficiency, a 6Gbps ultra-low power driver IC
implemented in a 130nm BiCMOS process is presented. The driver IC incorporates an
integrated 27-1 pseudo-random bit sequence (PRBS) generator for reliable high-speed
testing, and a driver circuit featuring digitally-tuned pre-emphasis signal strength. With
outstanding drive capability, the driver module can be applied to a wide range of carrier
injection modulators and light-emitting diodes (LED) with drive voltage requirements below
1.5V. Measurement results show an optical link based on a 70MHz red LED work well at
300Mbps by using the pre-emphasis driver module. A traveling wave electrode (TWE) modulator
structure is presented, including a novel design methodology to address process limitations
imposed by a commercial silicon fabrication technology. Results from 3D full wave EM
simulation demonstrate the application of the design methodology to achieve specifications,
including phase velocity matching, insertion loss, and impedance matching. Results show the
HBT-based TWE-EAM system has the bandwidth higher than 60GHz.
Thesis (Ph.D.)--Tufts University, 2015.
Submitted to the Dept. of Electrical Engineering.
Advisor: Valencia Joyner Koomson.
Committee: Mohammed Afsar, Mark Cronin-Golomb, and Ronald Knepper.
Keyword: Electrical engineering.read less - ID:
- bv73cc435
- Component ID:
- tufts:21421
- To Cite:
- DCA Citation Guide EndNote
