DAC-Free Ultralow-Power Dual-Polarization 64-QAM Transmission at 32 GBd With Hybrid InP IQ SEMZM and BiCMOS Drivers Module

• Published in: Journal of lightwave technology Vol. 35; no. 3; pp. 404 - 410
• Main Authors: Lopez, Iria Garcia, Aimone, Alessandro, Alreesh, Saleem, Rito, Pedro, Brast, Tino, Hohns, Volker, Fiol, Gerrit, Gruner, Marko, Fischer, Johannes Karl, Honecker, Jorg, Steffan, Andreas Gerhard, Kissinger, Dietmar, Ulusoy, Ahmet Cagri, Schell, Martin
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: IEEE 01.02.2017
• Subjects: 32 GBd; 64-QAM; BiCMOS; BiCMOS integrated circuits; DAC-free; driver; hybrid; III-V semiconductor materials; Indium phosphide; InP modulator; Mach–Zehnder; Optical modulation; Optical polarization; Optical transmitters; PAM; SiGe:C HBT
• ISSN: 0733-8724; 1558-2213
• DOI: 10.1109/JLT.2016.2616124

A hybrid transmitter module comprising a 15-segment InP IQ segmented Mach-Zehnder modulator and two 0.13 μm BiCMOS SiGe:C drivers with integrated 4-bit DAC functionality is described. The high-resolution prototype allows a wide range of modulation formats and, for the first time, ultralow-power dual-polarization (DP) 64-QAM signal generation at record speed of 32 GBd without the usage of external DACs is demonstrated. The DP 64-QAM signal is transmitted error free over 80 km of SSMF with 7.8 pJ/bit/polarization energy consumption. Post-FEC BER results are presented, with more than 2 26 bits decoded without errors after four decoding iterations. The package footprint is 28 mm × 76 mm. These results evidence the advantage of the proposed arrangement for the next generation low-power high-speed optical transceivers.